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The international pharmaceutical market

Cancer drugs cost more in America than elsewhere, but that may be just

Jun 11th 2016 | Chicago | From the print edition

MANY Americans think they pay over the odds for drugs—particularly for cancer drugs. Some go

so far as to suggest that other countries free-ride on their largesse, and that Americans are thus

subsidising drug development, a situation which, they say, needs to be fixed by changing trade

agreements.

A study unveiled at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s meeting in Chicago this week

looked into the matter. Daniel Goldstein of the Rabin Medical Centre, in Israel, and his

colleagues examined the prices of 15 generic and eight patented cancer drugs in six countries

(America, Australia, Britain, China, India and South Africa). They found that the highest prices

were, indeed, paid by Americans. The median monthly retail price in the United States was

$8,694 for patented drugs like Avastin, Gleevec and Herceptin, and $654 for generic drugs like

docetaxel and paclitaxel. Of the countries looked at, India paid the least for its patented drugs

($1,515 a month), and South Africa the least for generics (a tiddly $120).

The story, though, does not end there. Dr Goldstein went on to look at how the prices of these

drugs measured up in terms of affordability. To express this he calculated the monthly price as a

percentage of gross domestic product per person at purchasing-power parity (GDPcapPPP).

On this measure (see chart), America did middlingly well. India and China were the least able to

afford cancer medications. Generic drugs were least affordable in China, where they cost 48% of

GDPcapPPP, and patented drugs were least affordable in India, where they were 313%.

19.08.2016 11:25

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Americans, by contrast,...