Cancer Drug Costs Are Shooting, Says Study

A new study shows that cancer drugs cost much more and at higher rates than people realize. Oral cancer treatment medication has shot up multiple times since 2000, even after prices were adjusted for inflation based on information from the prescription drug database. However, new drugs were priced higher than available ones.

The prices have gone up mainly because new drugs are being introduced into the market. With 32 therapies having hit the market from 2000 to 2014, the costs for the treatments too shot up from an average of $1,869 per month in 2000 right up to $11,325 per month in 2014.

The drugs are more gentle than chemotherapy treatments, but are priced higher and are becoming unaffordable for patients who do not have sufficient insurance plans.

"Patients are increasingly taking on the burden of paying for these high-cost specialty drugs as plans move toward use of higher deductibles and co-insurance - where a patient will pay a percentage of the drug cost rather than a flat copay," said Stacie Dusetzina of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-author of the study.

Hence, the high-cost drugs are being bought even if patients are not able to afford them, although a number of commercially insured health plans have enough coverage of orally-administered cancer drugs.

"The major trend here is that these products are just getting more expensive over time," Dusetzina concluded, even though there are not enough reasons for it that have been made clear.

The findings were published on April 28, 2016, issue of the journal JAMA Oncology.