3 ms·
I worked for a company that developed some PA criteria for these drugs, I can assure you a lot of debate went into this criteria.. these two specific drugs are
by swalsh 11y ago
I worked for a company that developed some PA criteria for these drugs, I can assure you a lot of debate went into this criteria.. these two specific drugs are probably the most hotly contested drugs. If we sold them at the 84k price tag to anyone that COULD use it, the entire insurance industry would go bankrupt, literally. Not even an exaggeration. While your logic is sound, the drug is cheaper than a liver transplat... not everyone who has Hep C ends up getting a liver transplant. There's a huge gap between the number of people who COULD use the drug (and have a MUCH better quality of life), and the people who are most qualified for it. The drug companies are not doing the government a favor here... sorry.
Another side conversation that's interesting, is who takes the $84k hit. There's sound logic that it's cheaper to give the drug NOW vs paying for surgery LATER... but what if i'm not your insurer when you need it. With obamacare, you can't be denied because of pre-existing conditions... so it's interesting math.
- maxerickson 11y agoDo you have a sense of the production costs? If they aren't very high, the US government could start making the company look like jerks by offering $50 billion for the patent. I'm pretty sure they would be able to calculate a nice return based on a payment like that. The math works fine for that, there's ~3 million people just in the US to treat, paying $50 billion would save a substantial amount just treating those patients. Of course, we don't run our government based on math that makes sense, so it's a pipe dream.
- swalsh 11y agoI don't, there's a lot of people in government trying to make change (Bernie Sanders for one!), any public information that is out there, is probably about as twisted as Enrons finance sheets.
- danielweber 11y ago> the US government could start making the company look like jerks by offering $50 billion for the patent Pretend you were in charge of Medicare/Medicaid. The NPV of the lifetime care cost of the HepC symptoms of each HepC patient on your rolls is $X. You want to encourage someone to develop a cure for HepC, so you put out a price bid for what you will pay someone who shows up with a cure. What price do you offer?
- maxerickson 11y agoI offer $Y, the lowest amount I think I can get them to accept.
- danielweber 11y agoIn the hypothetical, you are offering a price before anyone has developed it. "You want to encourage someone to develop a cure." What price do you offer for someone who shows up with a cure?