Local Costs of Anti-Cancer Drugs

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• …Welcome to the ____ Family! We invite you to visit us at www.____.com and find our great medicine prices. We provide serious and first class service to all our customers 24/7. If we don’t carry a medicine you need just let us know and we will be more than glad to assist you! To show you our gratitude for past purchases and to offer you one more reason to continue purchasing with ____.com We are offering a limited time 30% discount include on all our medicines. We will keep on giving you the best price and service in the market. Welcome and enjoy your visit to www.____.com

I found this in my mailbox, along with similar North American offers for drug purchase over the Net. Its interesting to note that the list price of many drugs is significantly less in the Philippines even when 30% discounts apply overseas. We're also spared the additional costs of airmail and taxes. 

Third world pricing– what a huge mercy! Somebody Up There must feel pity about the absence of government subsidies because the costs of the newer drugs indicated for systemic cancer treatment seem to be miraculous hereabouts. In many instances, we can even afford to ignore the small differences between "original" and "copy".

As for the mindboggling biologics… patients who sourced or once contemplated importing cetuximab from the US gasped when the product was finally entered into the local market. With their subsequent savings, they could afford a US trip each month had they wished it.  Et tu, Neulasta?

 

Previous Comments

Dear Sir,

How much is Cetuximab in the Phils?
How effective is it for those who have the metastatic colorectal cancer?

Posted by carlo at January 12, 2008, 5:13 pm

Sorry for the late reply.
Cetuximab is expensive relative to other therapies for metastatic colorectal cancer. That fact holds true for the entire Planet Earth. Its use as a single agent or in combination with chemotherapy is supported by solid evidence for specific colorectal cancer disease settings but… yes, in those settings it affords benefit in terms of response & survival time. It is not curative.

Posted by oncodoc at February 18, 2008, 11:05 am