Medicare cancer drug pricing "under the influence..."

A group of more than 100 leading cancer experts are supporting a patient-based grassroots movement demanding action on the high price of cancer drugs--see petition at end of blog to participate.

Tefferi blames drug company greed, physicians who are too quick to prescribe new drugs without proven efficacy, health insurers willing to go along with upwards of $3,000-a-month co-pays, and a lack of federal government oversight adding checks and balances to a Wild West of drug pricing — especially for the federal health plan for seniors, Medicare, which is barred from negotiating drug prices. That prohibition was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2003.

“The prices are fixed by the drug companies,” Tefferi said. “There is no regulation.”

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Dataset for Pricing in the Market for Anticancer Drugs

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chemodata20140825.csv
File Size:	12 kb
File Type:	csv

Download File

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Here is a dataset from "Pricing in the Market for Anticancer Drugs."Journal of Economic Perspectives: Vol. 29 No. 1 (Winter 2015). Download this guide to the dataset to help guide analyses.

Solutions needed now...

• Create a post-FDA drug approval review mechanism to propose a fair price for new treatments, based on the value to patients and health care.
• Allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
• Allow the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, created through the Affordable Care Act initiatives to evaluate the benefits of new treatments, and similar organizations to include drug prices in their assessments of the treatment value.
• Allow importation of cancer drugs across borders for personal use (e.g. prices in Canada are about half prices in the United States).
• Pass legislation to prevent drug companies from delaying access to generic drugs.
• Reform patent system to make it more difficult to prolong product exclusivity unnecessarily (patent “evergreening”).
• Encourage organizations that represent cancer specialists and patients (American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Society of Hematology, American Association for Cancer Research, American Cancer Society, National Comprehensive Cancer Network) to consider the overall value of drugs and treatments in their guidelines.

How did this happen? Under the Influence CBS News

What can I do?
Click here --> Protest High Cancer Drug Prices so all Patients with Cancer have Access to Affordable Drugs to Save their Lives

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