NOVARTIS To Charge $475,000 For $20,000 Cancer Cure Funded By Taxpayers And Charity

a reply to: infolurker
Would bundled care require someone to take less money (profit). If so lobbying against it would be fierce.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: infolurker
Would bundled care require someone to take less money (profit). If so lobbying against it would be fierce.

Of course... and it is already fierce as they do not want to loose their ability to charge any price they want ... or publicly post prices.

Why is it that only health services don't give you a cost until you get the bill? Would anyone accept that when buying a car, getting lunch, or financing a house?

How much is it.... we will let you know after you agree to pay whatever we charge for it.... corruption plain and simple.

a reply to: infolurker

Novartis (NVS -1%) has assuaged investors in Gilead Sciences (GILD +5.2%) that CAR-T pricing may be an issue. It announced that its just-approved Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) will cost $475K per treatment, toward the low end of analysts' projected range of $400K - 750K.
Opening a new era in cancer care, the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the first treatment that genetically engineers patients' own blood cells into an army of assassins to seek and destroy childhood leukemia.

abcnews.go.com...
seekingalpha.com...


Money is all that matters, curing someone is a side effect of that money.

If CMS agrees and implements the scheme, then the price should be substantially higher than $475K considering the "life value" of young patients who respond.
It also said that it is working with CMS on an outcomes-based approach to reimbursement that will allow payment for only those ALL patients that respond to treatment by the end of one month.

a reply to: infolurker

Nationalize our medical industry and this won't happen.

This company "bought" the cure. There should be no arbitrage in healthcare nor commodifying the health of American bodies.

Gross.

We need to make laws to govern that kind of Monopoly from happening. They are raping the people of this country.

This is one of many medicines where that happens, government research actually finds the answer and the drug companies look at what is in their archives from the eighties and nineties and finds a drug that the US government funded the research for back then.

if only our government would stop over regulating business they would stop treating things as if mercantilism was still running our economy and making things excessively expensive... drawing us closer to socialism/communism/fascism.

overregulation creates artificial limits to money and the whole basis of capitalism is that more money is always created when there's economic growth thus money will never run out, while mercantilism is based on the idea of money being limited and finite thus growth is also limited..

inflation and the dollar being a fiat currency are the only thing propping up our economy, without that then overregulation would have destroyed our economy decades ago..

america is confused about what capitalism actually is and every new regulation draws us closer to becoming the new USSR or a new nazi germany...

our government needs to end regulations and only enforce the law when corporations abuse the rights of the people, costs would drop, economy would grow, cost of living would drop, value of the dollar would rise, stock market would be more stable and would always be growing, housing prices would drop, etcetera...

america is in economic regression back towards mercantilism and it will end in another world war if we don't stop over regulating everything...

europe is only so prosperous in terms of healthcare because they properly use and understand capitalism better than we do, the real socialists americans fear so much are themselves... totally unaware of the truth hidden in plain daylight...

man i just had an epiphany there and was running on the stream of consciousness with my writing and that came out...

sorry about that..

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: FyreByrd


Because the government is ran by idiots.
Remember the Wall Street bailout?
People got their bonuses paid for with bailout money.
Fricken idiots.

And who is it that owns the government? Those same wall street thiefs that make huge profits on all disasters?

Blame the causal party please, not the minions.

a reply to: namehere

my point being that all these high prices come from too much regulation and more regulations to control prices would make it even worse.

originally posted by: namehere
a reply to: namehere

my point being that all these high prices come from too much regulation and more regulations to control prices would make it even worse.

That makes no sense. Regulations are to prevent monopolies and unfair practices. Without them, there would be no competition, just one giant company within 20 years.

originally posted by: namehere
a reply to: namehere

my point being that all these high prices come from too much regulation and more regulations to control prices would make it even worse.

In some instances, you're right. Regulations do increase prices. But, a price-ceiling regulation, by definition, is a good thing when a company chooses price-gouging over compassion.

all these fda safety regulations drive prices up and delays progress of research, like with my disease duchenne muscular dystrophy... before patients and advocates went to court to get regulations reduced it took 5 years or more for trials to even reach us and progress was stagnant.
the cure has been so close for 10 years at least just teasing us yet it wasn't till recently that the fda gave researchers the chance to research with relaxed regulations, as a result muscular dystrophy research projects sprouted up everywhere and human trials don't have to wait more than 1 or 2 years now...

hopefully at 35 it's not too late for me... i'm already pushing it and have luckily avoided the heart problems most with dmd start getting at this age, less regulations could save people so i have a reason that i oppose restraint of capitalism even if it's risky, without risks i'll die and so will many others..

so what if it costs 475,000, at least that way more will possibly be saved, controlling prices will kill people for no reason but paranoia and distrust.

a reply to: infolurker

We should try and get this information to trump.
If he truly is a man of the people maybe he can
do something about it. Otherwise what power do
we have to stop it?

a reply to: carewemust

price gouging is rare and it only happens when costs are driven up by excessive regulations, if price gouging happens then take legal action instead of regulating the whole industry and punishing innocent businesses and people.

originally posted by: namehere
a reply to: carewemust

price gouging is rare and it only happens when costs are driven up by excessive regulations, if price gouging happens then take legal action instead of regulating the whole industry and punishing innocent businesses and people.

Wrong. Price Gouging is becoming the new norm with "orphan drug" and other "exclusivity" schemes. How many examples do you want?

Here are a few for examples:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: Abysha

well then capitalism in america will fail over fear and paranoia, the courts exist to protect people and if people refuse to believe while demanding more and more controls to punish what are already crimes as per the constitution and common laws, then socialism and poverty is the destiny of america..

i never said abuse shouldn't be punished, but regulations only control and aren't meant to punish anyone and actually encourage lighter punishments that do nothing to protect anyone or prevent monopolies, that's why monopolies shift around and new ones keep popping up.

excessive regulations encourage monopolies and makes small business too expensive to remain independent and they end up being bought out to survive. this is what also drives prices up.

capitalism is enlightened self interest not uncontrolled greed, all excessive regulations do is push business on the path of uncontrolled greed to survive and fulfill the inherent self interests that exist in every human being working for them, they "try to survive" rather than compete with each other.

originally posted by: Abysha

originally posted by: namehere
a reply to: namehere

my point being that all these high prices come from too much regulation and more regulations to control prices would make it even worse.

That makes no sense. Regulations are to prevent monopolies and unfair practices. Without them, there would be no competition, just one giant company within 20 years.

Not anymore.... Lobbyist write the regulations which GIVE them monopoly controls and the ability to price gouge. CBS did a story recently on it. They are using regulations to screw the US citizens.

www.cbsnews.com...

Prescription drug prices are skyrocketing in the United States due in large part to government regulations, a new analysis finds.

These regulations allow drug manufacturers to charge monopolistic prices that aren’t opposed by competing market forces, the researchers believe. Drug makers charge high prices for drugs thanks largely to “market exclusivity” regulations

The companies can do this largely unopposed because the nation’s largest health insurers -- Medicare and Medicaid -- aren’t allowed to negotiate prices, he added.

Those insurance programs cover one out of every three Americans, but under federal law must pay whatever price the drug makers charge.

Upon approval of a new drug, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets a period of market exclusivity that can last from five to 12 years, the authors said. During that period, no low-cost generic version of that drug can be sold.

Exclusivity regulations are being exploited through tactics like “evergreening” and “hard switching,” Sarpatwari said.

“Evergreening” occurs when drug companies renew their market exclusivity for a product by patenting a new version that is slightly different, Sarpatwari said.

According to Gina Moore, assistant dean for clinical and professional affairs with the University of Colorado’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, “We see that consistently with drugs that are about to come off-patent.”

Moore said that “the drug company will make a trivial change to a drug they have on-patent, and then promote that newer medicine as being superior to the earlier version, even though it has limited clinical benefits.”

Sarpatwari explained that in “hard switching,” manufacturers stop selling an older drug about to go generic and replace it with a new high-price market-exclusive product.

“When the generic version of the prior drug goes onto the market, many patients wouldn’t automatically be taken onto it because they’re now prescribed the new product,” Sarpatwari said.

Consumers could fight back against these high prices by refusing to pay them, but that’s not an option for the nation’s largest health insurance plan, he added.

Medicare covers more than 55 million people, and Medicaid programs cover more than 70 million. But federal law prevents the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers, Sarpatwari said.

Moore pointed out that most other countries allow their government health programs to negotiate drug prices. Americans pay more because their ability to push back is hampered.

Katherine Hempstead is a senior advisor who leads the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s work on health insurance coverage. She said, “Some people would probably say we are subsidizing drug development for the rest of the world.”

Sarpatwari and his colleagues said that the FDA needs to apply more stringent requirements on the award and extension of exclusivity rights.

In addition, Congress should reconsider allowing Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate drug prices, rather than forcing the programs to pay whatever pharmaceutical manufacturers demand, the authors stated.

Meanwhile, Hempstead said, other efforts are underway that could help lower drug prices.

And they pretty much own the FDA

www.latimes.com...

And the "Orphan Drug Scam" regulations

hbr.org...

Yet the main reason the new kind of pharma companies has taken an interest in this market is that the Orphan Drug Act (ODA) substantially increases the potential profits. Since its passage in 1983, the ODA has governed approval of drugs for rare diseases and has incentivized pharmaceutical innovation via multiple tax breaks and seven years of market exclusivity. Now, though, pharma companies are taking advantage of these incentives to profit from individual patients and private and government insurers. According to EvaluatePharma’s 2015 Orphan Drug Report, this market makes up 20.2% of total global prescription drug sales and is growing by 11.7% annually, nearly double the growth rate of the global prescription drug market overall. Strikingly, 44% of new drugs approved in 2014 had orphan status, with seven of the 10 best-selling drugs being approved under the ODA.

The business model of the exploitative companies profoundly impacts our health care system’s ability to manage costs and provide care. My colleague Erin Fox, director of University of Utah Health Care’s Drug Information Service, recently provided an excellent example in her testimony before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. In 2015 Valeant acquired the heart drug Isuprel and promptly raised the price for a single vial from $440 to $2,700, citing a responsibility to shareholders to maximize profit. This 600% increase would have cost our hospital $1.6 million each year and forced us to remove it from emergency crash carts.

Novartis:

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Files Healthcare Fraud Lawsuit Against Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. For Orchestrating A Multi-Million Dollar Prescription Drug Kickback Scheme


U.S. ex rel. Bilotta v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.


Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces $370 Million Civil Fraud Settlement Against Novartis Pharmaceuticals For Kickback Scheme Involving High-Priced Prescription Drugs, Along With $20 Million Forfeiture Of Proceeds From The Scheme


Eon Labs Pays U.S. $3.5 Million to Settle Allegations of Submitting False Claims to Medicaid


Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics to Pay More Than $72 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations Concerning TOBI

The only thing that needs to happen to solve this is if the formula gets "leaked" out to the public so people can make it themselves.

a reply to: infolurker

yeah, it exists and i never said it didn't, what i said was the main reason it happens is one of two reasons, the first is when a resource becomes rare and the laws are not enforced and the second reason is when excessive regulations drive up prices thus simulating rarity of a commodity...

i never said there should be no regulations, what i said is that current regulations go too far and endangers our country by driving prices up in every sector of the economy, for rare disease drug development costs are so high and progress is delayed so often because regulations go too far, leaving many hanging for decades.

originally posted by: namehere
a reply to: infolurker

yeah, it exists and i never said it didn't, what i said was the main reason it happens is one of two reasons, the first is when a resource becomes rare and the laws are not enforced and the second reason is when excessive regulations drive up prices thus simulating rarity of a commodity...

i never said there should be no regulations, what i said is that current regulations go too far and endangers our country by driving prices up in every sector of the economy, for rare disease drug development costs are so high and progress is delayed so often because regulations go too far, leaving many hanging for decades.

Well, in this case it is not excessive regulations as much as Monopolistic Legal Price Gouging regulations that allow these jackasses to openly price gouge and actually release statements to that fact.

In 2015 Valeant acquired the heart drug Isuprel and promptly raised the price for a single vial from $440 to $2,700, citing a responsibility to shareholders to maximize profit.