Clear-Eyed Coverage About New Medicines

  • by: |
  • 08/14/2006

I am quck to criticize awful reporting about medicine and medical innovation and I try to be even faster in pointing people to the best reporting on the same issues…So I apologize for not writing sooner about about Jeff Donn’s thoughtful and often moving article “Costly Drugs Force Life-Death Decisions” which hit the AP wires this past weekend.

Jeff acknowledges the value of breakthrough medicines but contrasts it with how we deal with an insurance system that fails to recognize or value them similarly or requires people to make life or death decisions about using medicines that can extend life by forcing people to pay a percentage of the cost of a new medicine (never requiring people to make the same contribution to after the fact and less effective hospital care) He writes about a woman who rather than paying nearly $20 k of the cost of Erbitux decided to refuse treatment….

“In her six decades, she had shared in a long marriage, raised three children, worked in a nursing home, painted as a hobby â and wasn’t ready to leave it all behind. But she was also a careful spender who sometimes returned new clothes to the store, deciding she didn’t really need them.

Maybe this new drug, Erbitux, could extend her life by a small fraction, but she wouldn’t be cured. “She was just very frugal, and she said it wasn’t worth it,” her husband Larry remembers.

So she refused the treatment.”

This is a complicated area — insurance has not caught up to the realities of the new technology of medicine and the new technology itself — shifting towards targeted therapies that work well in some but not everybody — is still changing clinical practice and pricing patterns which themselves are tied to outdated ways in which drugs are developed and market expectation…At the same time, it is clear the newer therapies are allowing us to live longer and better lives which cumulatively allows us to be a more productive and humane society…

Jeff Donn manages — in a relatively short article — to capture all these issues. Link to the article is here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060812/ap_on_he_me/spending_to_death

CMPI

Center for Medicine in the Public Interest is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization promoting innovative solutions that advance medical progress, reduce health disparities, extend life and make health care more affordable, preventive and patient-centered. CMPI also provides the public, policymakers and the media a reliable source of independent scientific analysis on issues ranging from personalized medicine, food and drug safety, health care reform and comparative effectiveness.

Blog Roll

Alliance for Patient Access Alternative Health Practice
AHRP
Better Health
BigGovHealth
Biotech Blog
BrandweekNRX
CA Medicine man
Cafe Pharma
Campaign for Modern Medicines
Carlat Psychiatry Blog
Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry: A Closer Look
Conservative's Forum
Club For Growth
CNEhealth.org
Diabetes Mine
Disruptive Women
Doctors For Patient Care
Dr. Gov
Drug Channels
DTC Perspectives
eDrugSearch
Envisioning 2.0
EyeOnFDA
FDA Law Blog
Fierce Pharma
fightingdiseases.org
Fresh Air Fund
Furious Seasons
Gooznews
Gel Health News
Hands Off My Health
Health Business Blog
Health Care BS
Health Care for All
Healthy Skepticism
Hooked: Ethics, Medicine, and Pharma
Hugh Hewitt
IgniteBlog
In the Pipeline
In Vivo
Instapundit
Internet Drug News
Jaz'd Healthcare
Jaz'd Pharmaceutical Industry
Jim Edwards' NRx
Kaus Files
KevinMD
Laffer Health Care Report
Little Green Footballs
Med Buzz
Media Research Center
Medrants
More than Medicine
National Review
Neuroethics & Law
Newsbusters
Nurses For Reform
Nurses For Reform Blog
Opinion Journal
Orange Book
PAL
Peter Rost
Pharm Aid
Pharma Blog Review
Pharma Blogsphere
Pharma Marketing Blog
Pharmablogger
Pharmacology Corner
Pharmagossip
Pharmamotion
Pharmalot
Pharmaceutical Business Review
Piper Report
Polipundit
Powerline
Prescription for a Cure
Public Plan Facts
Quackwatch
Real Clear Politics
Remedyhealthcare
Shark Report
Shearlings Got Plowed
StateHouseCall.org
Taking Back America
Terra Sigillata
The Cycle
The Catalyst
The Lonely Conservative
TortsProf
Town Hall
Washington Monthly
World of DTC Marketing
WSJ Health Blog