Is the value of new medicines worth the price?
Joel White, Executive Director of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage thinks so — he wrote a piece today for the Scottsdale Independent titled, The Value of New Medicines is Worth the Price, and it included some food for thought:
“New medications are often staggeringly expensive. But this pricing doesn’t come out of thin air. High drug prices reflect the enormous costs of developing new medications and the huge — but often ignored — value that pharmaceuticals deliver to patients. Imposing price controls, as these misguided doctors suggest, would stifle drug development and hurt patient well-being.”
Kenneth Thorpe, Ph.D., Chairman of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease wrote in the Almanac today:
“Some people seem to believe that a good alternative for a $1,000 breakthrough drug is a $100 breakthrough drug. Unfortunately, the real alternative is no breakthrough drug at all.”
Let’s face the facts: We have some serious challenges here, and they include value, cost, coverage, regulation and how we reform and enhance all of them.
Payers, providers and policymakers need to come to the table. But if they can’t agree on a table, it can even be a large room with several chairs. How about a nice outdoor space on a crisp and clear Fall day?
No matter how they come together, we need to stop how they’re coming apart. But the war of all against all will never help patients — they’ll just be the casualties.
