The United States: patients in the new era of "precision medicine" can't afford high price drugs

Source: guangming.com June 16, 2015 according to the report of chinanet.com on June 14, scientists analyzed that drug development has opened the door for the new era of "accurate medicine", but at the same time, they also lead people into the era of "astronomical price" of drugs More and more patients can't bear the high cost of medicine New cancer drugs usually cost more than $100000 a year, nearly twice the average household income, USA Today reported It is expected that the new cholesterol lowering drug will be approved in the summer of 2015, with an annual expenditure of more than 10000 US dollars (about 62000 yuan), and many people will take it for life The price of new drugs is more than 40 times higher than that of conventional statins Statins are currently $250 (about rmb1552) per year for non-native drugs Even with health insurance, many patients have to pay thousands of dollars a month For many people, treating serious diseases such as cancer means "walking into a corridor of bankruptcy or poverty." "That's a huge economic burden," said Timothy turnham, director of the melanoma research foundation Patients are not the only burden Taxpayers pay for prescription drugs for Medicare, Medicaid and other public insurance programs In 2014, the US spent a record $374 billion on prescription drugs, up 13% from 2013 "2014 was the fastest year in the past decade, and nearly half of that growth was due to new drugs in the last two years," said Clare krusing, a spokesman for Medicare Some of the most expensive drugs are "breakthrough" drugs closely followed by the Federal Food and drug administration because they fill some gaps, kluxin said In the next 10 years, 10 "breakthrough" new drugs will increase government spending by 50 billion US dollars (about 310.42 billion yuan) If insurance companies raise premiums, private insurance patients will also have to pay more out of their own pocket (original title: American media: "precision medicine" patients can't afford high price medicine in the new era)