cancer drug

Paul Davis is a retired physician in Findlay, Ohio, who gets weekly treatments of the drug Kimmtrak to help stave off the progression of his rare cancer — uveal melanoma. He worries the accumulating cost of the drug — nearly $50,000/week if he has to pay it out of pocket — could saddle his family with crushing medical debt after he's gone.

Health & Safety
Economy

Nearly $50,000 a week for a cancer drug? A man worries about bankrupting his family

5:00am February 14, 2023

by Fred Schulte

Medicare suddenly stopped paying for the pricey drug that prolongs his life. As he waits for an appeal, this retired physician wonders if he should give up treatment to spare his family the cost.

A study of chemotherapy medicines produced by 10 companies found that, on average, each drug produced seven times as much revenue for its manufacturer as it cost in research and development.

National
Science
Health & Safety

R&D Costs For Cancer Drugs Are Likely Much Less Than Industry Claims, Study Finds

4:33pm September 11, 2017

by Richard Harris

Industry says it costs about $2.7 billion to bring a cancer drug to market. But oncologists who ran the numbers put the average closer to $650 million. Drugs are priced way too high, the doctors say.

A colored magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the brain of a 76-year-old patient with dementia shows the brain has atrophied and the dark brown fluid-filled spaces have become enlarged.

National
Science
Health & Safety

Cancer Drug That Might Slow Parkinson's, Alzheimer's Headed For Bigger Tests

6:30pm March 15, 2017

by Jon Hamilton

In a preliminary study, the cancer drug nilotinib seemed to help patients with Parkinson's and dementia. Now two larger and more rigorous studies of the drug are under way.

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