Houston oncologist exposes the lies of Big Pharma :
More than 100 leukemia experts from around the world have signed an opinion piece objecting to the high prices of cancer drugs. The letter appeared in a prominent medical journal and was drafted by Dr. Hagop Kantarjian, the head of the leukemia department at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
....The initial decision to speak out was we were developing three drugs for chronic myeloid leukemia and all three got FDA approval in 2012. But, to our surprise, all three came with a price exceeding $100,000 a year. Now one would think this has been ongoing with us for the longest time, but the reality is cancer drug prices used to be on average under $5,000 a year before 2000. And now they’ve jumped to over $100,000. So there’s a ten-fold increase in the price of cancer drugs over the past 10-15 years. And this has sneaked up on us gradually on us without anyone noticing, but we have come to a boiling point.
....They say it reflects the cost of development. And there’s the myth that it costs about $1 billion to bring a new drug to the market. The reality is that the cost of bringing a new drug to the market is probably 10 percent of that value, or less than $100 million. Well then they say we let the free-market economy take care of settling the drug prices. In the case of patented drugs, it does not seem that market competition is settling the drug prices at reasonable values. For example, in chronic myeloid leukemia there are now five drugs that do the same thing. And yet all of them are priced at $90,000 to $130,000 per year.
If cancer research is paid 80 percent by taxpayers’ money, and if most of the discoveries in cancer drugs are made in the United States, why is it that the U.S. patient pays almost twice the price of a cancer drug as they pay in Europe? . . . In lung cancer, in prostate cancer, in cancer of the bladder, in renal cancer, in melanoma. In all of these disciplines, the cancer drugs prices are coming routinely now at over $100,000 a year. I cannot find any reason for the run-up in the cancer drug prices except corporate profits.
http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/1369153808-Why-A-Houston-Leukemia-Doctor-Is-Calling-Out-Drug-Companies.html
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"One more peep out of you whiney proles and we will increase your daily dose of soma." - Big Pharma, Inc. (R)
it killed him by 2011. (This is the disease this doctor is researching). My Dad was not able to afford the best drug for his profile and the one he did get he took a dose that was too low in order to save money.
The way that Novartis & the Insurance Companies did this price-fixing was that they got the target drug Gleevec declared "non-chemo"--even though you have to take the medication every day or you will die. Only the state of Oregon has laws preventing insurance companies from doing this scam.
We lived this nightmare. It was brutal. One of these days I will write about it.
I don't have much use for the love smilie these days but this doctor deserves it. 
My dad was very active in a number of pursuits--he loved life and people and did not want to leave the planet--had no other issues until the CML leukemia. There were so many friends at his memorial that it was hard for us to even cope with the crowd. Dad always supported his kids emotionally and taught us what's important, and it's not money. But his last days were fraught with all the angst and needless stress of trying to get the drug that would keep him alive. Not to mention the stress on the rest of us. Horrific.
everyone is entitled to make their own health care decisions.
my husband passed a year ago. he had an inoperable brain tumor (glioblastoma). he came home from work and had a seizure -- 3 months later he was gone. fortunately he didn't suffer. i sympathize with what you're going through right now.
two and a half years ago for MDS/AML. Feel free to PM me and also check out the boards on the LLS site for some support.
Many hugs and best wishes for you and your family 
My family has a long history with M.D. Anderson. My sister was a cytotech and the assistant to the head of pathology, Dr. John Lukeman, for many years until she passed away from brain cancer in 1990. She had surgeries but had a kind that is always fatal and strikes young adults.
My mother was treated there for breast cancer in 1979. She had a Halsted radical, chemo and radiation. She had false negative mammograms, so she didn't do anything until she had a dent on the underside of her breast. She recovered and lasted until 2002.
My father had AML but he went into hospice because he was 88 years old and said he'd had a full life.
My family donated a five headed microscope to the pathology lab after my sister died.
Dr. Lukeman was amazing. He died in 2011 at the age of NINETY-SIX!! I don't think he ever truly retired.
He was a true bodhisattva of compassion. How can you not like a guy who had a Jewish funeral with a Scottish bagpiper playing Amazing Grace at the graveside? That's ecumenical!!
Our govt. has to start negotiating the price of drugs, especially since our tax dollars are already paying for them, so that our prices can be like Canadians and Europeans prices.
Fuck 'em all!!!!
