5 ms·

Are you sure THIS treatment above is only 500k? It’s too bespoke and no way I can imagine it costing less than a few million per patient.

dumbmrblah 4y ago
I responded to another post similar down but you are correct. The drug is $500k, the surrounding medical care / hospitalizations etc pushes the total cost to over $1,000,000
- midoridensha 4y ago
  >The drug is $500k, the surrounding medical care / hospitalizations etc pushes the total cost to over $1,000,000 In the US. Outside the US, hospitalization isn't that expensive.
  - zo1 4y ago
    For reference, here in South Africa, it's about 250$ per day of hospitalization. Or 1500$ for ICU hospitalization per day. And we have private Healthcare here.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - vagrantJin 4y ago
      Pardon me. Is the 250$ per day in a public or private health facility?
      - zo1 4y ago
        Private, though you don't pay it out of pocket for 95% of stuff as the medical aid covers it using your premium. Public is probably much much cheaper (free) but not a place any sane middle class person here would ever want to experience.
  - dodslaser 4y ago
    US healthcare really does put a new spin on the term "life savings". Here in the Democratic People's Republic of Sweden healthcare is government funded and universal.
    - sedeki 4y ago
      Independently of where one stands politically, we Swedes are lucky that our government can import expensive medical treatments from large evil US corporations that do the work for us.
      - saiya-jin 4y ago
        Its not like US is the only manufacturer of medical tools which and treatments for the only way to pay is via that ridiculous medical system they have there. Thats a nice fable that US pharma would like you to believe since they profit from it generously. Those items are done all around the world, ie in Switzerland. And a lot of tools come from ie Germany (Siemens), Netherlands (Philips) etc.
        tomhallett 4y ago
        I chuckled when I read this, because when I think about the "brand" for Philips/Siemens, my default assumption is "American company". When you mentioned it, I recalled "Oh yeah, I've heard that Siemens is german before", but being raised with the "American Exceptionalism" mental framework means this thought isn't the default. (Versus brands like Volkswagen/Ikea/Toyota). Embarrassing example: I was watching Federer play Nadal and thought "Wow, American athletes are great. I'm proud that we have the best. Wait... neither of these guys are american. Let me google where they're from. What am I so proud of exactly??" The number of times we hear "this is the greatest country in the world" on a daily basis is really quite sad.
        sedeki 4y ago
        I am not trying to come across as patronizing, but the US is, in my opinion, the greatest country in the history of the world. I am sorry that you feel that way about your country as a fellow human (I am not being sarcastic), but my positive view on American exceptionalism has nothing to do with you personally, just your culture.
  - throwaway69123 4y ago
    Are you saying hospitalization isnt that expensive to the patient or where its socialized medicine the overall cost?
  - refurb 4y ago
    It's not as expensive as the US, but it's still bloody expensive to get intensive care in a hospital. It's not unusual for a premie baby who stays in an nICU in Canada for a month to have a treatment cost well over $500,000.
    - cjrp 4y ago
      Actual cost, or billed cost? Because they're not the same.
      - refurb 4y ago
        There is no difference in Canada for public hospitals. All billing rates are set by the government.
dm319 4y ago
OP is talking about CAR-T therapy which is in routine clinical practice. In the UK costs have gone from £600k to around £250K That includes the surrounding medical, nursing and follow up care. In the US costs are likely to be more than that. The article is talking about a very bespoke process where they take a patient's cancer, sequence the whole thing, select mutations they think will be presented on MHC-1, predict the antigens visible, and 'somehow' (I need to read the article more carefully to figure out how they did this) select a TCR sequence which will bind to that. Then they use CRISPR to graft that onto the TCR gene of a T cell from the patient (3 types by the looks of it), and re-infuse the targeted cells. So yes, that would cost several million.
- kwhitefoot 4y ago
  > that would cost several million. But it sounds like many of the steps should be amenable to an engineering solution so the cost should fall dramatically if only it can get started.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

dumbmrblah 4y ago

I responded to another post similar down but you are correct. The drug is $500k, the surrounding medical care / hospitalizations etc pushes the total cost to over $1,000,000

midoridensha 4y ago
>The drug is $500k, the surrounding medical care / hospitalizations etc pushes the total cost to over $1,000,000 In the US. Outside the US, hospitalization isn't that expensive.
- zo1 4y ago
  For reference, here in South Africa, it's about 250$ per day of hospitalization. Or 1500$ for ICU hospitalization per day. And we have private Healthcare here.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - vagrantJin 4y ago
    Pardon me. Is the 250$ per day in a public or private health facility?
    - zo1 4y ago
      Private, though you don't pay it out of pocket for 95% of stuff as the medical aid covers it using your premium. Public is probably much much cheaper (free) but not a place any sane middle class person here would ever want to experience.
- dodslaser 4y ago
  US healthcare really does put a new spin on the term "life savings". Here in the Democratic People's Republic of Sweden healthcare is government funded and universal.
  - sedeki 4y ago
    Independently of where one stands politically, we Swedes are lucky that our government can import expensive medical treatments from large evil US corporations that do the work for us.
    - saiya-jin 4y ago
      Its not like US is the only manufacturer of medical tools which and treatments for the only way to pay is via that ridiculous medical system they have there. Thats a nice fable that US pharma would like you to believe since they profit from it generously. Those items are done all around the world, ie in Switzerland. And a lot of tools come from ie Germany (Siemens), Netherlands (Philips) etc.
      - tomhallett 4y ago
        I chuckled when I read this, because when I think about the "brand" for Philips/Siemens, my default assumption is "American company". When you mentioned it, I recalled "Oh yeah, I've heard that Siemens is german before", but being raised with the "American Exceptionalism" mental framework means this thought isn't the default. (Versus brands like Volkswagen/Ikea/Toyota). Embarrassing example: I was watching Federer play Nadal and thought "Wow, American athletes are great. I'm proud that we have the best. Wait... neither of these guys are american. Let me google where they're from. What am I so proud of exactly??" The number of times we hear "this is the greatest country in the world" on a daily basis is really quite sad.
        sedeki 4y ago
        I am not trying to come across as patronizing, but the US is, in my opinion, the greatest country in the history of the world. I am sorry that you feel that way about your country as a fellow human (I am not being sarcastic), but my positive view on American exceptionalism has nothing to do with you personally, just your culture.
- throwaway69123 4y ago
  Are you saying hospitalization isnt that expensive to the patient or where its socialized medicine the overall cost?
- refurb 4y ago
  It's not as expensive as the US, but it's still bloody expensive to get intensive care in a hospital. It's not unusual for a premie baby who stays in an nICU in Canada for a month to have a treatment cost well over $500,000.
  - cjrp 4y ago
    Actual cost, or billed cost? Because they're not the same.
    - refurb 4y ago
      There is no difference in Canada for public hospitals. All billing rates are set by the government.

dm319 4y ago

OP is talking about CAR-T therapy which is in routine clinical practice. In the UK costs have gone from £600k to around £250K That includes the surrounding medical, nursing and follow up care. In the US costs are likely to be more than that. The article is talking about a very bespoke process where they take a patient's cancer, sequence the whole thing, select mutations they think will be presented on MHC-1, predict the antigens visible, and 'somehow' (I need to read the article more carefully to figure out how they did this) select a TCR sequence which will bind to that. Then they use CRISPR to graft that onto the TCR gene of a T cell from the patient (3 types by the looks of it), and re-infuse the targeted cells. So yes, that would cost several million.

kwhitefoot 4y ago
> that would cost several million. But it sounds like many of the steps should be amenable to an engineering solution so the cost should fall dramatically if only it can get started.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]