High Prices for Drugs Attacked at Meeting
CHICAGO—In a sign of growing frustration with rising drug prices, a prominent cancer specialist on Sunday sharply criticized the costs of new cancer treatments in a high-profile speech at one of the largest annual medical meetings in the U.S. “These drugs cost too much,” Leonard Saltz, chief of gastrointestinal oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said in a speech heard by thousands of doctors here for the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Dr. Saltz’s remarks focused mainly on an experimental melanoma treatment made by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. , but he also criticized pricing more widely. He cited statistics showing that the median monthly price for new cancer drugs in the U.S. had more than doubled in inflation-adjusted dollars from $4,716 in the period from 2000 through 2004 to roughly $9,900 from 2010 through 2014. Dr. Saltz cited studies showing that the price increases haven’t corresponded to increases in the drugs’ effectiveness.
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Dr. Saltz said the combination regimen’s benefit was “truly, truly remarkable for a disease that five years ago we thought was virtually untreatable.” But he said that combining the drugs would cost around $295,000 a patient over nearly one year, which he called unsustainable. If all U.S. patients with metastatic cancer took drugs priced at $295,000 a year, it would cost $174 billion to treat them all for just one year, Dr. Saltz said.
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In an interview prior to his speech, Dr. Saltz said there has been a taboo associated with doctors talking about drug prices, in part because doctors are expected to focus on what’s best for patients regardless of costs. But in recent years, drug prices have begun to more significantly impact patient care, he said. Patients are often expected to pay a percentage of the cost for high-priced therapies, forcing some patients to forgo effective therapies because of the financial burden, he said.
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He said that one step toward controlling prices would be allowing Medicare to negotiate prices directly with pharmaceutical companies, which it is currently barred by law from doing. He also called for changing the way Medicare pays for infused drugs. Doctors currently receive a percentage of the drug’s total sales price. The payment method has created a conflict of interest because cancer doctors can make more money by using the most expensive drugs, he said.
More..
http://www.wsj.com/articles/high-prices-for-drugs-attacked-at-meeting-1433119411
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The specific melanoma results are reported here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141107194
= new reply since forum marked as read
And then there's the 'Bad Santa' on Futurama who they might also have him visit the good doctor..
Maybe he'll accidently get mailed something. 
once he was elected 
"...He said that one step toward controlling prices would be allowing Medicare to negotiate prices directly with pharmaceutical companies, which it is currently barred by law from doing..."
