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Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectious diseases combined

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Re: Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectious diseases combined

#251

Post by erichocean »

chimeracoder wrote: post #193
oleg_k wrote: post #140

I’m working on direct-to-consumer STD testing in JasonHealth.com . Some thoughts on Hep C testing: Hep C Antibody is a very inexpensive test. We charge $25 for it. It takes a long time for the body to produce the antibodies after infection. This test is only 90% sensitive after 12 weeks ( https://www.hepatitisc.uw.edu/go/screening-diagnosis/acute-d... ). Testing shortly after possible infection with this test is not…

> It takes a long time for the body to produce the antibodies after infection. This test is only 90% sensitive after 12 weeks That's not much of a problem except for people worried about infection after a single known exposure (e.g. needlestick in a medical setting). About a third of patients spontaneously clear the acute infection within six months. On top of that, some countries (such as Germany) refuse to treat ac…

> On top of that, some countries (such as Germany) refuse to treat acute infections with antivirals

Well, that's one way to save money…

Re: Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectious diseases combined

#252

Post by UnpossibleJim »

MisterTea wrote: post #167
vilhelm_s wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's the "right" price, you want to incentivize companies to try to develop drugs that will do the maximal amount of good. Like, you could imagine a system where you don't have a free market at all, the government would directly fund both medical treatment (like in Europe) and medical research (like nowhere right now, but you could imagine nationalizing the drug companies). So then, before the hepatitis-c dru…

> I think it's the "right" price, you want to incentivize companies to try to develop drugs that will do the maximal amount of good. So the only incentive to do maximal good is more money. And people wonder why I laugh when it's claimed that we live in a civilized society.

You have to make a distinction between a person and a corporation. Now I feel I should say, I'm not in favor of the "Citizens United" ruling before I start down this path.

The mandated motivation for a corporation is to maximize share value for it's shareholders. That's it, as creepy as it is. CEO's (well "good" sociopathic ones) compartmentalize everyone's jobs so they only do the little bit of bad that they are comfortable with and can distance themselves from the corporate wrongdoings, as a whole.

A singular person, or even a small group of people, have entirely different dynamics and motivations and would, normally, never make these type of decisions themselves. Singularly, they wouldn't be able to run successful multinational, billion dollar corporations either.

It's somewhat unfair to look at a single person who works at one of these companies and say that they are the downfall of society anymore than you could point to a singular person in Roman history and say, "There. That guy. He caused the downfall."

Re: Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectious diseases combined

#253

Post by refurb »

Symmetry wrote: post #246
refurb wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just measuring profit ignores all the companies who went under because their drug didn’t work. You’re just counting the winners. And marketing includes things like paying a sales rep to answer doctors questions. Are you saying they shouldn’t do that.

I was under the impression that the biggest driver of marketing costs for drugs was providing free samples of the drug to doctors, with training doctors coming second and advertisements a distant third.

Depends on the drug and the market. Not all drug have a free sample program, but yes, it can add up since they account for the full price, not cost of goods.

Personnel can be a big chunk as well, since the fully loaded cost of a sales rep can be $400k per year and for primary care drugs, it’s not unusual to have 1,000 reps.

Re: Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectious diseases combined

#255

Post by ken »

koheripbal wrote: post #77
ken wrote: post #53

It looks like the standard blood "Donor Battery" includes anti-HCV, so regular donors are already being screened. Of course, you shouldn't donate blood for the purpose of getting tested for a disease.

There is a question on the blood donation form that asks if you are donating for the purposes of testing yourself. If you answer yes, then your donation is discarded.

There's no one universal questionnaire. No such question exists at any blood center I've donated at.

If you answer any question in a way that would lead to the blood being unusable, they wouldn't go to the effort of taking a donation just to discard it. At least, my local blood center doesn't.

Re: Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectious diseases combined

#256

Post by jki275 »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #166
jki275 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the risk of a blood draw has to be just about as close to zero as one can reasonably get.

It's not the blood draw, it's false positives resulting in unnecessary expensive and frequently invasive procedures done. A quick Google search for too much screening provides many results on the topic.

I think that's hyperbole at best.

Re: Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectious diseases combined

#257

Post by mister_hn »

yakz wrote: post #2

Antiviral drugs for hepatitis C are very effective, but they come at a steep cost. Just one Sovaldi pill costs $1,000. A full 12-week course of treatment with this drug costs $84,000. The price of other hepatitis C drugs is also high: Harvoni costs $94,500 for a 12-week treatment Mavyret costs $39,600 for a 12-week treatment Zepatier costs $54,600 for a 12-week treatment Technivie costs $76,653 for a 12-week treatmen…

Can't they be covered by Health Insurance companies?

Re: Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectious diseases combined

#258

Post by big_chungus »

tapland wrote: post #247
DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems related to the political question of how much healthcare costs should be socialized, i.e. spread across a group rather than shouldered by individuals. As someone who doesn't smoke, barely drinks alcohol, doesn't take illegal drugs, and (I hope) is in a lifelong-monogamous relationship, I hate having to cover healthcare costs specific to those problems. On the other hand, as someone with chronic mild obesit…

And the moral one. You could have gotten any conceivable illness while having had optimal healthy habits forever. The US pays around 2x the cost compared to any other country, and just as much as the others from taxes, presumably just to be able to say 'F YOU' to those who can't afford care.

This is a gross mischaracterization of the position I and mamy others hold. Fundamentally, I will pay twice as much to avoid the state dipping its slimy fingers into another aspect of my life. More practically, our screwed-up healthcare system resulted from state involvement (FDA bureaucracy, wage & price controls, etc.), so I don't think more state involvement will fix a thing.

Re: Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectious diseases combined

#259

Post by tapland »

big_chungus wrote: post #258
tapland wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the moral one. You could have gotten any conceivable illness while having had optimal healthy habits forever. The US pays around 2x the cost compared to any other country, and just as much as the others from taxes, presumably just to be able to say 'F YOU' to those who can't afford care.

This is a gross mischaracterization of the position I and mamy others hold. Fundamentally, I will pay twice as much to avoid the state dipping its slimy fingers into another aspect of my life. More practically, our screwed-up healthcare system resulted from state involvement (FDA bureaucracy, wage & price controls, etc.), so I don't think more state involvement will fix a thing.

Well, it's what happens in practice to real people. So go you.

Edit: It also doesn't make sense. You are giving the government just as much money as people do in northern europe, and the government gets to play around with it and decide JUST AS MUCH about you and your care.

Re: Hepatitis C kills more Americans than all other infectious diseases combined

#260

Post by anonuser123456 »

nkozyra wrote: post #168
anonuser123456 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If we - a I personally think we should - attach a social caveat to capitalism that requires we do what we can for people less fortunate, it fails miserably because we lack a mechanism for fostering unfettered profit In the case of intellectual property/technology you are mistaken. Patents have an expiration. Capitalists are provided a time limited monopoly for the sake of extracting rent in exchange for development…

You're operating on a false dichotomy, though. Why is this the only environment you can envision wherein drugs can be developed?

Because it's the only system shown through out history to work?

If there are better alternatives, why aren't other countries uses such a model? Why is the US _THE_ powerhouse, followed on by other highly market driven economies?

People "envision" schemes all the time. I prefer to live in a world where my drugs are real, not envisioned.

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