News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k alternative. Parent comment

Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by darpa_escapee on Thursday April 12, 2018 @11:51AM (#16822173)
I've actually run into a very similar example, I was prescribed a $400 dollar bottle of antibiotic eye drops, which my insurance fought and eventually paid for. I asked why that was chosen and if there were other options that I could pursue in the future. I was told that "these are your eyes and I'm not going to [fuck around] when it comes to your vision."

I can't really disagree with that logic.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by cko on Thursday April 12, 2018 @06:25PM (#16825502)
True, but what did doctors do before these new drugs? “Fuck around” with “inferior” products... reason I’m cynical is because many new drugs that hit the market are not novel - for example loteprednol (older drug) vs difluprednate (newer): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/28628490/

By the way, some of these newer drugs don’t have to be “superior” to be approved, they just have to be none-inferior to current therapy. https://www.raps.org/regulatory-focus™/news-articles/2016/11...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by darpa_escapee on Thursday April 12, 2018 @06:29PM (#16825526)
From what I gathered, it was more effective than the cheaper options, not that it was chosen because it was new and shiny.
[ Parent | on HN ]