Liver extensions and Drug company profits

[chazwin]

A drug has been rejected by NICE this week because it is too
expensive.
The anti-liver cancer treatment has been pitched at a price that the
market will stand but it has failed in its promise to cure cancer.
The drug can only assist by extending the life of the patient by up to
6 months, prolonging the inevitable.
The drug has not been banned and is available for anyone who would
like to buy it at a cost of £3000 per month ($4000).
There is a lot of uproar about it because the NHS will not prescribe
it as it exceeds the rule of thumb of amount of £30,000 per annum for
one year of extended life that NICE works to.
This will enable more cost effective treatments to be made available
on the NHS.

This is the sort of issue that detractors (usually from the USA) bash
the NHS over the head with.
But they fail to consider that allowing the drugs companies carte
blanche over costs has a serious knock on effect on insurance costs so
that they all end up paying for those that need the drugs. Allowing
the drugs companies to produce palliative drugs at ridiculous prices
is simply allowing profiteering and encouraging poor medical practice.
Drugs companies do not want to cure, they want to delay death. Keep
buying the pills, as long as you continue to be dependant on them.
What we need is drugs that cure not this bullshit that extends the
misery of life.
It is no surprise that many drugs companies are part of the same
multinational companies that own the hospitals.
Thank fuck someone has the courage to say NO.