The League against cancer is again panicking prices for anticancer drugs. After one first alert launched in December 2015, the association is strengthening its action by doubling its online petition on Change.orgby one combative poster campaign. In Chiara Arsego’s illustration, two characters are chatting, touting the booming cancer drug business. “Inexplicable and unacceptable, the prices of innovative cancer drugs are inaccessible to many cancer patients, condemning them to certain death.“can we read under the picture. An alarm bell that is not to the taste of the drug company federation (Leem), who is indignant in a press release of the “manipulations” of the League against cancer.
The threat of two-tier medicine
Last March, 110 oncologists had signed a forum to condemn the exorbitant prices of cancer treatments. The League Against Cancer is now calling for a massive mobilization for “weigh in the discussions and positions taken at the next G7, scheduled for May 26 and 27 in Tokyo“. The association specifically points the finger at Keytruda®, a drug soon to be marketed in France to treat melanoma, at a price of 100,000 euros per year and per patient. “Faced with the price inflation charged by pharmaceutical companies inclined to optimize their profits, real threats weigh on the equity of patient access to innovative cancer treatments and on the sustainability of our solidarity health system.“underlines the League against cancer. The association indeed fears that a two-tier medicine does not settle,”where only the wealthiest could have access to the best treatments“condemning the most disadvantaged patients”to certain death“.
“Blatant disinformation”
The Leem, which brings together the 270 drug companies in France, denounces a “blatant misinformation“from the association and respond”that no patient in France has ever been deprived of treatment for economic reasons.“The federation also recalls that French patients can benefit from major innovations in cancer treatment (immunotherapy, oral chemotherapy, targeted therapy …) “without putting a strain on the Medicines budget“.”Rather than being part of the denigration of a sector whose vocation is to save lives alongside health professionals, the League would benefit from contributing constructively to the reflection of all stakeholders on the necessary structural reform of the system. of care“concludes the Leem.
>> To read also:
Drug prices: the concern of pharmacists
Drug prices can vary by a factor of six
The drug that increased 5000% overnight
Is voltarene an anti-cancer drug?
