Current blood Cancer drug prices not justified

The costs associated with cancer drug prices have risen dramatically over the past 15 years, which is of concern to many top oncologists. In a new analysis, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center concluded the majority of existing treatments for hematologic, or blood, cancers are currently priced too high to be considered cost-effective in the United States. Their findings are published in the current issue of the journal Cancer.There have been substantial improvements in survival and quality of life after treatment for hematologic cancers in recent years, but drug costs have also skyrocketed. High prices have placed a significant financial burden on patients facing these diseases, especially in light of falling household income levels. In fact, up to 20 percent of patients may forgo treatment or significantly compromise their treatment plan due to high drug costs, according to a 2014 study.
The researchers were able to re-analyze 20 of the 29 studies with updated drug prices in the current U.S. market. Upon doing this, they found that 63 percent of those studies had costs per additional life-year higher than the $50,000 threshold. Several studies resulted in costs of $210,000 to $426,000 per additional life-year, many times higher than conventionally accepted levels.
This indicates that, although the drugs may have been cost-effective originally, their current prices cannot be justified based upon improved quality of life.
One of the drugs evaluated, Imatinib, was priced at $26,000 per year of therapy in 2001 and $132,000 per year in 2014. The price increase in imatinib and other drugs evaluated is not the result of new and improved versions, but instead is simply the result of rising prices charged by drug companies!