High prices for cancer medicines aren't the only reason they cost insurers and patients so much.
Waste pads the bill, a study finds,
because infused cancer drugs are distributed in the U.S. in vials that
usually contain more medicine than most patients need. Most of the time
that excess is thrown out, even though it's perfectly good, and worth
hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering
Cancer Center in New York estimate that wasted cancer medicine in the
U.S. this year will add up to nearly $3 billion in excess costs.
Their finding comes as the federal
government and much of the health care system try to reduce waste and
overall medical spending, which accounts for about one-sixth of U.S.
gross domestic product. The study, focused on the top 20 drugs for multiple
cancer types packaged in single-dose vials and for which the dose
depends on the patient's weight, finding that 1 percent to 33 percent of
those 20 cancer drugs, on average, remains in vials after each dose is
administered.
Based on the available vial sizes in the
U.S., the researchers estimated that makers of those 20 drugs this year
will receive an extra $1.84 billion from charges for unused medicine, or
about 10 percent of their expected U.S. sale.
Insurers and cancer patients will pay at
least another $1 billion on unused medicine in 2016, based on the
markups hospitals and doctors charge over a vial's price every time they
infuse patients with those cancer drugs, the researchers concluded.
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