Are drug companies taking advantage of cancer angst?
Cancer treatments are poised to become the biggest earner in the pharmaceutical industry
Berlin — Years before becoming a top cancer specialist, Eric Winer used to save money on his own medical care by talking US pharmacists into giving him expired treatments free of charge. Winer, who has a bleeding disorder known as haemophilia, knew the drugs would still work for a brief time after the official use-by date. The young physician was trying to stay within his insurer’s spending limit and avoid having to pay out of pocket one day. Decades later, he recollects that anxious time as he tries to make sense of the soaring prices of drugs for his own cancer patients. "Cancer is just viewed differently in our society," said Winer, 60, who is chief strategy officer and director of the Breast Oncology Centre at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "It evokes more fear. And somehow, I think the manufacturers of these drugs are able to take advantage of that in terms of the prices they set." That cancer angst, combined with prices that have surpassed $200,000 a year for revolutionary ...
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