There’s This Law We Need

Humira and Enbrel are on TV all-the-time. That’s because they cost around the same as a baby Lexus. Here’s the law we need. Every commercial for a drug must carry the list price in the same typeface and style used by the most prominent text in the ad. It must be on long enough to be comfortably read.

Are there enough drug commercials on television? I can’t turn on the set without seeing happy people conquering life altering problems.

If your drug is aimed at a subset of a subset of a subset of humanity how many pills can you sell? How can they afford this advertising? It’s not volume!

The specialized drugs you see advertised on TV are there because their list prices run in the tens of thousands of dollars per year.

There’s a new one for excema which caught the Times’ attention.

The drug, to be called Dupixent, will carry a list price of $37,000 a year, a hefty price tag for patients who are increasingly being asked to pay a larger share of the drugs they take. Still, its price is a bit lower than many other commonly used biologic drugs, such as Humira and Enbrel, that treat other skin diseases. – NYTimes

Humira and Enbrel are on TV all-the-time. That’s because they cost around the same as a baby Lexus.

Here’s the law we need. Every commercial for a drug must carry the list price in the same typeface and style used by the most prominent text in the ad. It must be on long enough to be comfortably read.

It seems silly that the United State government, probably the largest purchaser of drugs in the world, gets the worst of all deals. You’re on the hook for me through Medicare. You’re being taken to the cleaners.

8 thoughts on “There’s This Law We Need”

  1. You are so right Geoff, not to mention the plethora of ED drugs that no one knew was a problem until there was a drug for it. While the Govt tries to solve the issue of healthcare premiums, someone needs to look more closely at the prices being charged by providers and pharmaceutical companies as you are learning in your battle with cancer.

  2. welcome to the world of sick America…..do we buy medicine or do we eat or better yet I can afford them if I get a part time job ,but wait I already did that to help pay rent …..TIME FOR A NATIONAL HEALTH CARE PROGRAM BUT THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN BECAUSE SICK PEOPLE ARE MONEY MAKERS FOR THE DRUG COMPANIES PLAIN AND SIMPLE COME ON EVEN GETTING A SIMPLE THING LIKE MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS CRAZY COME ON 400 dollars for a ounce of a weed you can grow in ones yard for free but no can’t do that no cash in it let’s not help the sick get better let’s make life hard for them seems to be drug companies motto

  3. My dad a DAV at 93 uses both private insurance as well as the VA for his care. He caries his own health insurance to do both. With that he was diagnosed with cancer years ago and is now on treatment that would rock most of us out of homes. While his spread to his bones, the medications he takes help him daily to manage pain and although slow work his way through the day and even get out and enjoy some time. With that said, the one advertisement I cannot handle is the one for lung cancer. I lost my husband last year to that in just 6 weeks. I pray that the medication helps and is available to the many people who can use it, but it makes me think what if’s which I know it was to late for him.

    Geoff, keep up the good work, and keep getting stronger, as a country, we come together to help and support one another. You work hard and have done so and you will continue to nip this one as you navigate through your life.

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