“Genentech, a division of the Roche Group, makes both products but reaps far more profit when it sells the more expensive drug. Although Lucentis is about 40 times as expensive as Avastin to buy, the cost of producing the two drugs is similar, according to scientists familiar with the drugs and the industry.” What do you expect when you displace market forces?
These are not two drugs; this is one identical drug packaged and priced for two different therapeutic uses. Using Avastin for wet macular degeneration is an off-label use; whereas using Lucentis is the drug approved for the condition. The FDA actually encourages drug makers to test and apply for regulatory approval to use an existing drug for a new therapeutic use. Of course there is an incentive to price discriminate if the volume of drug required is different than the other and the problem severe.
Had Genentech not applied for a new drug indication, the firm would not have been allowed to communicate the new therapeutic use.
And recently they also announced that most of those eligible and signed up for Medicaid through Healthcare.gov may not be signed up after all because the eligibility and enrollment process is flawed. In one test, of just ten applications sent to the State of New Mexico, only three of the applications showed up and the rest “just disappeared!” Makes you really wonder about security of these operations. Makes the postal service look efficient and effective! Oh, that’s right, USPS is semi private/semi public so it can’t be as bad as the government?
The glitches on top of enrollments filed incorrectly or with missing/wrong information. Delightful.
“Genentech, a division of the Roche Group, makes both products but reaps far more profit when it sells the more expensive drug. Although Lucentis is about 40 times as expensive as Avastin to buy, the cost of producing the two drugs is similar, according to scientists familiar with the drugs and the industry.” What do you expect when you displace market forces?
These are not two drugs; this is one identical drug packaged and priced for two different therapeutic uses. Using Avastin for wet macular degeneration is an off-label use; whereas using Lucentis is the drug approved for the condition. The FDA actually encourages drug makers to test and apply for regulatory approval to use an existing drug for a new therapeutic use. Of course there is an incentive to price discriminate if the volume of drug required is different than the other and the problem severe.
Had Genentech not applied for a new drug indication, the firm would not have been allowed to communicate the new therapeutic use.
It’ll take years to truly understand how much the ACA impacts every facet of the healthcare system.
It takes a few minutes of hard thinking to realize that it hurts the system.
I suppose you gave it those 9 min of hard thought?
Perhaps. It’s a tad disappointing if you do.
On the papper applications- I wonder how many of the claimed enrollments was just HHS counting up paper applications that are now going nowhere?
Anything that runs into the thousands of pages is going to have a hard time not affecting some people adversely.
And counting…
Excluding top hospitals naturally. Just as Medicaid overwhelms those same providers.
U-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e!?!
And recently they also announced that most of those eligible and signed up for Medicaid through Healthcare.gov may not be signed up after all because the eligibility and enrollment process is flawed. In one test, of just ten applications sent to the State of New Mexico, only three of the applications showed up and the rest “just disappeared!” Makes you really wonder about security of these operations. Makes the postal service look efficient and effective! Oh, that’s right, USPS is semi private/semi public so it can’t be as bad as the government?