Pharmaceutical companies have a new strategy; the development of drugs that will cost in the $100,000 per patient range. And the best news for the Dendreon Corporation, the manufacturer of Provenge, is that Medicare has agreed to pay $93,000 per patient for it with your tax dollars! That’s right. This is a treatment for TERMINAL prostate cancer patients that will extend their life by four months, as compared with two months for the previously existing drug.
Sales people have long known that it is easier to sell one person something for $1,000,000 that one hundred people something for $10,000. The pharmaceutical industry has taken that to heart and is concentrating on medications in the $100,000 range.
Dendreon Corporation claims that the reason for the high cost is that they put $1 Billion into research and development. Oh really? Who says? Their accountants? Does anyone really trust accounting these days? Accounting has become a creative pursuit like painting and music composition. Should we be sending in forensic accountants to check out the R and D cost claims before agreeing to pay $93,000 per patient?
And, unfortunately this medical treatment doesn’t do anything to positively impact our nation’s overall health; it just allows someone to live a couple extra months at an unbelievably high cost that will be paid by tax payers. Now that’s an entitlement program! The patient gets a couple extra months to live and the pharmaceutical company makes $100K per patient. Who is really winning here?
That same $100,000 could fund a fitness program for hundreds of children to prevent obesity and resulting health problems such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Or, nutrition programs for children, in our own country, who are malnourished. These are everyday health issues that would provide us greater bang for our buck.
This is the same dilemma that we face in so many areas. When the basic needs of our nation like medicine, fuel, insurance are for profit industries, then the opportunistic profit seeking corporate culture has a field day. “Maximize profits” is the war cry of the modern corporation. But lost from the contemporary equation are the public’s best interests. Okay, I know this sounds a little socialist. So what’s wrong with that? When people are having the money sucked out of their pockets, it doesn’t matter whether it’s tax dollars or corporate greed, they become poorer as a result.
The fact is that the modern corporation has nothing to do with the founding principles of our nation. The founding fathers had been abused by the British corporations in colonial America. As a result they created corporations with limited powers, temporary charters, and public benefit as the main mandate. They even held corporate leaders legally responsible for corporate misdeeds. This is all very different than what corporations morphed into through court interpretations of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was suppose to give rights to the freed slaves.
Perhaps we should have a serious look at nationalizing some of these industries. I, for one, would like to start with the Health Insurance Industry. Big Oil would be nice, too. But let’s not forget to take a look at Big Pharma. Perhaps they could be directed to intervene where the greatest public good would be served instead of where the largest and quickest profits could be made.
“The government is incapable of administrating such things”, you say? Well I remember when the government (NASA) put a man on the Moon. Don’t tell me the government is incapable. At least you can vote politicians out of office. Try to vote out the CEO of Aetna or Bristol Myers Squibb.
Keep reading between the lines.
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