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$1, 000 a Pill, Sovaldi Jolts US Health Care System
abc news ^ | 6-17-2014 | RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

Posted on 06/17/2014 10:46:23 AM PDT by Citizen Zed

Sovaldi, a new pill for hepatitis C, cures the liver-wasting disease in 9 of 10 patients, but treatment can cost more than $90,000.

Leading medical societies recommend the drug as a first-line treatment, and patients are clamoring for it. But insurance companies and state Medicaid programs are gagging on the price. In Oregon, officials propose to limit how many low-income patients can get Sovaldi.

Yet if Sovaldi didn't exist, insurers would still be paying in the mid-to-high five figures to treat the most common kind of hepatitis C, a new pricing survey indicates. Some of the older alternatives involve more side effects, and are less likely to provide cures.

So what's a fair price?

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: gougeingbastards
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To: Citizen Zed
There is a difference between the cost of producing a drug and the cost of the research necessary to find what drug to produce.

The real problem is that the courts will rule that it is "cruel and unusual punishment" if the taxpayers don't provide this treatment to all the druggies in prison who have Hep C.

21 posted on 06/17/2014 11:59:22 AM PDT by omega4412
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To: Kansas58

And it is just pure coincidence that there is not much cost difference between the new pill and the old treatment?


22 posted on 06/17/2014 11:59:57 AM PDT by I am Richard Brandon
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To: Citizen Zed

That’s $90,000 for the “rich” Americans. If you’re an Egyptian you only pay about $900.


23 posted on 06/17/2014 12:06:16 PM PDT by lwd
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To: bigfootbob

Awesome you!!!

My friend started Sovaldi witin a week of approval(Nov/Dec).

Like you, she experienced less complications compared with the other treatments.

So glad for you and hope you stay well.


24 posted on 06/17/2014 12:14:15 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: I am Richard Brandon

I think you belong on the Democrat Underground site, as you seem to want the government to run everything.


25 posted on 06/17/2014 12:38:14 PM PDT by Kansas58
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To: Citizen Zed

I was diagnosed with Hep c back in 2001. I got into an experimental program using pegalated interferon and ribavarin. A month before I started on the regimen I ordered some medicinal mushroom capsules and started taking them. My blood tests showed that my viral load had dropped by 50% and when I told my doctor what I had been doing he really didn’t want to hear it. I went on the program and I’ve never been sicker in my life but I have no Hep C today.


26 posted on 06/17/2014 1:14:17 PM PDT by dljordan (WhoVoltaire: "To find out who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.")
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To: bigfootbob

Very good to hear :) (but the cost is a bit insane :/)


27 posted on 06/17/2014 1:46:53 PM PDT by Bikkuri (Molon Labe)
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To: Bikkuri

Thank you. Yes, the cost is insane. So is interferon and it didn’t work twice for me and a host of others. I believe the interferon cure rate is 40-50%.

Each interferon injection cost $1,000.00 too, but the standard treatment I had required weekly injections, not daily. There are some people who have had to take daily interferon injections while they are an end stage transplant priority patient.

Yes, the costs are insane and with all 3 of my treatments, including the Sovaldi, the manufacturer provides price savings to patients and insurers alike. The point I was hoping to make, when you factor in the costs associated just on meds and treatment alone while a large group of patients called non-responders or relapsers are moving forward with transplantation or death, Sovaldi even as costly as it is, will be a cheaper method of treatment. Fix it in 24 weeks and be done.


28 posted on 06/17/2014 2:22:41 PM PDT by bigfootbob
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To: Citizen Zed

Cured my brother of HepC.


29 posted on 06/17/2014 2:31:37 PM PDT by mware
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To: Kansas58

“Can you get that “guarantee” to include monitoring of their drinking and smoking habits, their diet and exercise habits and sleep habits?
Do we want such controls?”

They don’t guarantee the simplest thing. Nothing. Zero.

Well, that’s not entirely true - I believe that there IS one drug company who actually did this with one drug, and I was impressed.


30 posted on 06/17/2014 2:33:30 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
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To: Kansas58

Never said that sir. And I don’t. But I know how corporations price their stuff. Price as high as possible - instant high profit - because they can! Doesn’t always work out well - Xerox tried it, and how much of the copier hardware market do they make now? Smarter to price lower and keep the competition from stealing your market.


31 posted on 06/17/2014 2:36:08 PM PDT by I am Richard Brandon
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To: bigfootbob
My bother finished the series last month. Totally clear of Hep C.

He is on the liver transplant list but very far down the line.

About 10 years ago the doctors tried another cure (can't remember what it was) but he was as sick as a dog. Told me about a month ago, that the thought of killing himself entered into his mind, but for the sake of his wife and sons he could not do it.

32 posted on 06/17/2014 2:37:13 PM PDT by mware
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To: mware

Sounds like the right solution. Obama will do something to take it away from future patients.


33 posted on 06/17/2014 2:38:35 PM PDT by Citizen Zed ("Freedom costs a buck o five" - Gary Johnston, TAWP)
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To: The Antiyuppie

“HOW COME medical crap is the ONLY THING still sold without a guarantee?”

I can guarantee you will die. Life is a sexually transmitted disease which is 100% fatal.


34 posted on 06/17/2014 2:46:08 PM PDT by outofsalt
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To: mware

Thank God your brother made it through. Many didn’t. The interferon/ribivirin therapy used 10 years ago is what I used twice and was the only drug available that did anything.

Many people have this disease and have no idea they have it all the while their liver is under constant attack.


35 posted on 06/17/2014 6:53:26 PM PDT by bigfootbob
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To: Citizen Zed

I knew of a Chinese guy with Hepatitis C. His mother a true Tiger Mom was always disappointed that he didn’t have Hepatitis A+


36 posted on 06/17/2014 6:58:13 PM PDT by RFEngineer
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