https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQfFCC6i5_o&t=2792s
I am sure pharma industry has similar excuses for why Epipen 10x expensive in America compared to other parts of the world.
The lead researcher behind the treatment claims the treatment cost under $20k to administer though, and I've never heard of mass production/adoption causing the cost of a product to go up in price (edit: excepting certain luxury goods that go up because they're a status symbol or something), certainly not >20x more... I know nothing about the medical field so I'm open to having my mind changed but that completely defies intuition. After seeing $450 bags of saline on a medical bill I had last year I'm much more inclined to believe they're just price gouging.
> Novartis is also not the only manufacturer providing CAR-T drugs at a high price.
I guess more than one company can do something despicable?
> offer alternative payment programmes
The "alternative payment programme" mentioned is "requiring payment only if the CAR T therapy induces a complete remission by a certain time point after treatment." I'd much rather pay $20k whether it succeeds or fails than $475k if it succeeds and $0 if it fails, if it fails I'm probably dead and don't care very much...
I mean, a single person who is not an accountant and sounds like they possibly have an axe to grind is not the most compelling source for how much the treatment really costs novatis to deliver.
https://www.dana-farber.org/cellular-therapies-program/car-t...
Dr. Carl June, leading a charity and publicly funded program, developed CAR T cell gene therapy, which successfully cured leukemia. However, it somehow ended up in the hands of Novartis. The cost of a single therapy was $20,000, but now it is being sold at price of $475,000, making it unaffordable for the majority of people. Have you ever heard about this?
https://www.technologyreview.com/2017/08/30/149399/the-fda-h...
https://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2017/08/big-pharma-novart...