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Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India

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Re: Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India

#41

Post by analog »

adventured wrote: post #32
alive-or-not wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Health care R&D is extremely expensive in US (insanely high executive salaries, "lobbing" expenses, etc.). US companies may spend as much as the rest of the world, but deliver a lot less innovation.

I don't see any evidence to support your very dramatic claim. Quite the opposite. From early chemotherapy on to the human genome, stem cells, the Allen Brain Atlas, The Gates Foundation, modern biotechnology, organ regrowth, medical devices like the CT scanner (half invented in the US) or the da Vinci system of robotic surgery, etc etc etc the modern healthcare / pharma / biotech world owes a spectacularly massive de…

And all of that surrounding infrastructure is reliant on Mathematics which didn't originate in the US.

Re: Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India

#42

Post by nikster »

ofacup wrote: post #22

i've worked at novartis. they spend 3 times as much on marketing than research. that's what's wrong with the whole deal

Kind of shocking but that's not even the biggest problem.

The first problem is the money they spend on buying laws, aka bribes, aka "lobbying" as the USA likes to call it. Corruption in its finest form. That's why they get perpetual patents;

The second problem - and I kind of assume that that falls under "marketing" expenses - is that they can basically bribe healthcare providers and doctors to use their products.

Result: Most expensive health care system in the world, by a large margin.

Re: Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India

#43

Post by fredsanford »

analog wrote: post #41
adventured wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any evidence to support your very dramatic claim. Quite the opposite. From early chemotherapy on to the human genome, stem cells, the Allen Brain Atlas, The Gates Foundation, modern biotechnology, organ regrowth, medical devices like the CT scanner (half invented in the US) or the da Vinci system of robotic surgery, etc etc etc the modern healthcare / pharma / biotech world owes a spectacularly massive de…

And all of that surrounding infrastructure is reliant on Mathematics which didn't originate in the US.

Such a useless comment. Mathematics was arrived at by research which everyone shared when the vast majority of the research was happening...

Re: Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India

#44

Post by analog »

adventured wrote: post #37
adaml_623 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that US healthcare leads the way in innovation but in certain key measures like Infant Mortality and Life Expectancy it's not leading the field at all.

The US is within a small margin of error to being on par with both Japan (adjusting for their huge fraud in longevity) and South Korea on life expectancy. That sure sounds amazing considering our obesity / diet problems. I'd argue in fact that our advanced healthcare system and large investment is the only reason Americans aren't dying at 70 instead - we're able to keep people alive that would otherwise die much youn…

Bosnia and Russia are both listed as having worse infant mortality rates than the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mor...

Re: Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India

#45

Post by userulluipeste »

gambiting wrote: post #11

My father has been on Glivec for the last 7 years, and this is the only reason he is still alive - when he was diagnosed with GIST doctors told him he would have 2 years left at best, but decided to add him to clinical trials of Glivec for GIST patients. The whole treatment is paid for by our national health care, I believe it costs....$3000 per month, that's how much a single box of Glivec costs here and my dad has…

Nobody has a problem that "medicine actually saves lives" - that's what medicine is supposed to do, isn't it? The problem is when that life-saving medicine becomes unavailable due to it's pricing, which means sheer death!

Re: Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India

#46

Post by areddy »

'Gleevec is under patent in the U.S., but not in India' This is a biased article, Novartis tried to gain one more patent for existing drug with slight modification.

see 'Calling big pharma's bluff' http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/calling-big-pharmas-blu...

Re: Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India

#47

Post by jezfromfuture »

adventured wrote: post #30
ofacup wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

keep on believing. you're the defender of freedoms after all

That's embarrassing. What does your glib, mostly obnoxious comment have to do with anything factual? You hate America so much you can't even give it credit for positive things that are factually accurate?

Sorry but america does not subsidise the health systems of the world , it just sad to see you argue so much when in all actuality your being fleeced tax payer wise & health insurance wise . Your health service doesn't really seem like its there to help most just the rich people.

Re: Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India

#48

Post by adventured »

analog wrote: post #44
adventured wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is within a small margin of error to being on par with both Japan (adjusting for their huge fraud in longevity) and South Korea on life expectancy. That sure sounds amazing considering our obesity / diet problems. I'd argue in fact that our advanced healthcare system and large investment is the only reason Americans aren't dying at 70 instead - we're able to keep people alive that would otherwise die much youn…

Bosnia and Russia are both listed as having worse infant mortality rates than the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mor...

I was going by the CIA factbook.

It lists Bosnia at 6.1 (50% lower than the Wiki).

The Wiki entry claims it uses the CIA factbook as a source. So I'm not really sure which source that Wiki entry is relying on.

Re: Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India

#49

Post by userulluipeste »

p6v53as wrote: post #25

In other words americans partly pay for indians for drugs by having these patent laws.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5530662

"The issue the Indian court had with Gleevec patent application is that it only rearranged the molecule in a new crystal pattern"

...in other words the American patenting system is more corrupted than India's. Reading again my last written sentence I can not but awe - I never thought I might ever compare America with India and find something less corrupt in the last one!

Re: Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India

#50

Post by scotty79 »

> Rejecting the Gleevec patent application is not the only step that the Indian government has taken to circumvent patents on cancer drugs.

It's not circumventing the patent. It's not granting the patent. People think that patent is some kind of innate natural right and if you manage to trick one country into giving you monopoly you are somehow in the right now and other countries that don't see the point of giving you similar monopoly are circumventing your sense of entitlement.

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