PCSK9 experience shows drug market isn ’ t completely broken

  Why isn’t this thing growing? Everyone knows that the market mechanisms that make most of the US economy efficient are lacking in healthcare. That’s especially true for pharmaceuticals, where drug companies can raise prices at will, and only the government can step in with price controls to put things right. At least that’s what we’ve been hearing in the press and on the campaign trail for the last year or more. So I read with interest a recent STAT article These pricey cholesterol drugs aren’t selling. And that has the biotech industry sweating, about how the market is blocking high-priced drugs –and preventing pharma companies from doing all the things we’ve been told they can do at will. No one disputes that the new drugs, Repatha and Praluent, are excellent at lowering bad cholesterol, or LDL. They often succeed where the traditional treatment — an inexpensive class of drugs called statins — fails. The problem boils down to doctors who are reluctant to write prescriptions, insurers who are unwilling to pay for them, and drug companies that have failed to understand a fast-changing marketplace. The failures could send a chill through the still-booming biotech business, which relies on the idea that the risky, expensive process of developing new drugs can one day pay off big. Contrary to the views expressed in the STAT article, I think the market is actually doing an ok job here. There are two main reasons why the dr...
Source: Health Business Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Economics Pharma Policy and politics drug prices praluent Source Type: blogs