Healthcare for all or being able to access any medical assistance needed is said to be a basic human right that everyone must get. Unfortunately, that is not the case, especially in some of the most powerful countries. In 2017, Malaysia was dubbed as the country that offers the most affordable health care treatment especially in the areas of cosmetic surgery, dermatology, and dental work.
However, health care services are not the only ones that must be affordable, but also the drugs that must be needed to take. The people of the United States is said to be one of the nations in the world that spend so much money on healthcare and drugs. A recent announcement that cancer pills’ price will no longer have an increase on their price was such a relief to a lot of people, but the Trump administration’s healthcare campaign may not actually benefit the people of American despite some drug companies.
Cancer Pill Price Increase Canceled
Patients who take Imbruvica capsules three times a day, spend almost $150,000 every single year might rejoice over the reports of two major drug companies changing their minds on increasing the price of cancer pills. Pharmacyclics and Janssen announced that they have decided to no longer produce the said capsules and just introduce the new one to the people, which is known to be a tablet that a patient would have to take once a day depending on the dosage.
Those who need to take two of this new pill would definitely feel the higher cost since this would actually be triple the price of the first one. So technically, even if a patient is under any insurance or government plan, it wouldn’t cover the expenses on that particular pill alone.
However, last week they changed their mind and decided that they will stay with the usual pill which is 140 milligrams per capsule and they wouldn’t even touch the price. In an official statement released by Phramacyclics, they have received some feedbacks that these capsules are actually pretty accessible and that there wouldn’t be any problem from their supplier, which is why there is no need for them to change anything to change anything, not even the price.
There are quite a few proposals/ideas in Trump's Rx plan, but it is striking how few are actual concrete actions the administration says it will definitely take.
— Noam Levey (@NoamLevey) May 11, 2018
.@POTUS has put out a serious plan to help lower prescription drug prices. It represents a good balance between promoting innovation and using government authority given to @HHS @US_FDA @CMSGov. More about plan here: https://t.co/p6VDoDC5pE
— Lanhee J. Chen (@lanheechen) May 11, 2018
Medical experts often adjust the dosage of the Imbruvica on their patients since there are side effects that could also affect their system and would prevent them to recover, especially if taken with other drugs. They believe that the once a day pill, wouldn’t exactly work as the company said they would if ever it has been pursued. The price also seems pretty ridiculous for something that would’ve to benefit an introductory product.
A clinical trial is what the Value in Cancer Care Consortium is trying to pursue since they had been focusing on making sure that cancer treatments get more affordable for the people, and the once a day pill that was meant to be originally released was too far from being affordable at all. According to University of Chicago’s oncologist Mark J. Ratain, the fact that the two drug companies have decided not to pursue the once a day pill and just retained the Imburvica is something that definitely impressed him since they didn’t just consider the price change but also the efficiency.
Trump Health Campaign Gets Slammed
United States President Donald Trump talked about his plans on lowering prices on drugs and calling out on those middlemen who get drugs from pharmaceutical companies and sells them for a higher price.
During his speech, he revealed that this is something that can be referred to as unfair to the people and it must no longer continue. He made it very clear that he wants to get rid of middlemen since they are only the ones benefiting from this and the people are the ones suffering from it by having to pay for expensive medicine.
On a 44-page report that was released by the Trump administration, one of the things that the president also highlighted was to increase the price of ads for prescription drugs. After Trump announced his plans, the Food and Drug Administration now called onto a lot of drug companies who are selling overpriced prescription drugs. Generic drug companies, on the other hand, said that they are willing to give the FDA samples to prove it.