Healthy Skepticism Library item: 5114

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Agovino T.
Spending on specialty drugs soar
Associated Press 2006 Jun 7
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/health/14757214.htm

Notes:

Ralph Faggotter’s Comments:

Unless you are a NASDAQ investor, one of the undesirable side effects of biotech drugs is their incredible cost to the consumer.

Is this purely due to the cost of research and production or is there some serious profiteering going on here based on exploiting the sick, the desparate and the vulnerable?

Is this what the brave new world of biotech medicine was supposed to be all about?

Full text:

Spending on specialty drugs soar
THERESA AGOVINO
Associated Press

NEW YORK – Spending on high cost specialty drugs soared 17.5 percent last year and is expected to more than double by 2009, according to a report released Wednesday.

In contrast, spending on traditional drugs increased only 10 percent.

Specialty drugs are typically biotech medications that treat complex, chronic conditions and often need to be injected. Spending on such drugs reached $40 billion last year or 19 percent of the total on all medicines, according to Express Scripts Inc., a Missouri-based pharmacy benefit manager.

By 2009, Express Scripts predicts specialty drug spending to reach $90 billion or 28 percent of $316 billion, the projected total for all medications. It expects spending on traditional medicines to grow 32 percent to $226 billion. The growth in specialty drug spending will be driven by several factors including new products, additional uses for existing medicines and more patients, said Express Scripts spokesman Steve Littlejohn.

The explosive growth is spending on specialty drugs is especially problematic because there is no pathway for generic competitors to enter the market.

Spending on injectable drugs for inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and crohn’s disease soared 35 percent, the largest increase in the group.

An average prescription for an inflammatory disease costs $1,417.

Drugs to treat blood clotting factor deficiencies such as hemophilia registered a 25 percent spending increase, the second largest rise in the group. Annual treatment costs about $100,000 per patient.

Spending on cancer drugs known as antineoplastics, which were administered outside a doctor’s office, rose 19.2 percent, the third largest jump. The price per prescription rose by almost 15 percent to nearly $1,600 on average, making inflation the primary driver of the spending increase.

Only two types of specialty drugs had spending declines_ antivirals and fertility treatments. The decreases were due to a decline in utilization.

Express Scripts based the overall projections on data from the government and IMS Health, a pharmaceutical market research firm.

The statistics on the drug categories were from its own business, which manages pharmacy benefits for more than 55 million people.