Politics and Money

[Elroy Jetson]

Treatments for rare diseases are always costly because there are very few recipients to amortize the cost of developing the drug.

These pharmaceuticals fall under "The Orphan Drug Act" which incentivizes work on diseases which would otherwise be ignored by pharma firms.

A friend with melanoma is receiving either Yervor or Keytruda antibody treatment. Outside of the trial the pharma firms charge Medicare $400,000 for a course of treatment. The success ratio is low - estimated at 48% for Yervoy and 56% for Keytruda.

Of course patients with private insurance and patients in other countries pay far less than this $400k price due to competitive bidding.