35. It's Getting Expensive
In America, medical treatment for cancer costs $70 billion a year. and "smart-bomb drugs" can make care much more expensive.
How Costs Add Up...
Post-biotech (1987-2007). The sale of expensive cell targeted therapies transformed development of anti-cancer drugs into a big business that now is dominated by the pharma and biotech companies.
Popular cell-targeted therapies... cost of using drugs for 1 year.
- Drug
- Avastin
(lung cancer) - Tarceva
(pancreatic cancer) - Gleevec
(stomach cancer) - Erbitux
(colon cancer)
- Cost Per Year
- $106,000
- $25,000
- $45,000
- $115,000
Example: Treatment for Colon Cancer. Pre-biotech, using F-5U (a mainstay chemo drug), an 8 week treatment would cost about $100. Today, using a new drug like Erbitux, an 8 week treatment costs about $19,000.