Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Have Been Getting A Lot More Expensive

Author

• Ben Jay, Craig Newmark Graduate School of JournalismFollow

Graduation Date

Fall 12-16-2018

Grading Professor

Miguel Paz

Subject Concentration

Health & Science

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Abstract

Multiple Sclerosis is a very expensive disease. According to a 2016 study in the American Journal of Managed Care, treating it can cost patients anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 per year, which can meet or even exceed the average US household median income, depending on how severe your case is. For a disease that has no known cure, and requires frequent medical attention to manage symptoms that can completely debilitate a person if left untreated, that can mean spending $4.1 million over the course of a lifetime, according to the same study. However, in the last 20 years, that cost has increased considerably.

According to a 2015 study published in Neurology, a medical journal, MS drug prices have been increasing “at rates 5 to 7 times higher than prescription drug inflation” since the 1990s. First generation therapies, which first came to market in the 1990s with annual costs between $8,000 and $11,000, now cost over $60,000 per year. Several theories abound for why this is, but in short, a lack of government regulation in the US, and the lack of a fully-comprehensive public health insurance system have played a significant role in keeping those prices up. Despite the introduction of over a dozen new MS drugs into the marketplace over the last two decades, competition has generally failed to drive down the prices of existing drugs, despite common logic suggesting that increased economic competition would do that. http://benjayingly.com/jay-capstone/ https://github.com/fakebenjay/jay-capstone/

Recommended Citation

Jay, Ben, "Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Have Been Getting A Lot More Expensive" (2018). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gj_etds/783