Some health economists, such as those at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), believe that they can tell us the right price to pay for each new medicine that the FDA approves. These equations compare the price of a drug with the improvements it offers in patients’ quality of life and the economic savings gained by keeping patients healthy. What the Wuhan crisis shows, though, is that we are all patients with a common symptom—fear, which many are suffering from now over the prospect of a deadly virus, COVID-19, terrorizing communities and families. Fear comes with its own costs, as the global economy is already discovering, with travel bans and quarantines. A treatment or vaccine would ease our minds, even if most of us don’t wind up using it. How should we price the value of peace of mind? Health economists don’t know. Read Full Article »
How Do You Price a Pandemic?
With
the Wuhan coronavirus declared a global health emergency, drug companies are racing to find treatments for the infected and a vaccine for everyone else. The pandemic unfolding in China makes a compelling context for the drug-pricing debate in Washington, in which one side insists that we don’t need innovation if patients can’t afford it, implying that we have better things to spend our money on than supposedly overpriced medicines. Do Americans really believe that, though—especially under current circumstances?
Some health economists, such as those at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), believe that they can tell us the right price to pay for each new medicine that the FDA approves. These equations compare the price of a drug with the improvements it offers in patients’ quality of life and the economic savings gained by keeping patients healthy. What the Wuhan crisis shows, though, is that we are all patients with a common symptom—fear, which many are suffering from now over the prospect of a deadly virus, COVID-19, terrorizing communities and families. Fear comes with its own costs, as the global economy is already discovering, with travel bans and quarantines. A treatment or vaccine would ease our minds, even if most of us don’t wind up using it. How should we price the value of peace of mind? Health economists don’t know. Read Full Article »
Some health economists, such as those at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), believe that they can tell us the right price to pay for each new medicine that the FDA approves. These equations compare the price of a drug with the improvements it offers in patients’ quality of life and the economic savings gained by keeping patients healthy. What the Wuhan crisis shows, though, is that we are all patients with a common symptom—fear, which many are suffering from now over the prospect of a deadly virus, COVID-19, terrorizing communities and families. Fear comes with its own costs, as the global economy is already discovering, with travel bans and quarantines. A treatment or vaccine would ease our minds, even if most of us don’t wind up using it. How should we price the value of peace of mind? Health economists don’t know. Read Full Article »
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