2015年3月12日讯/生物谷BIOON/--自去年以来，抗癌药物的人均价格已经上涨了21%，未来很有可能继续水涨船高。
根据艾美仕医疗信息研究所2014年5月发布的报告，美国的抗癌药物平均价格在十年间翻了一番，平均每位癌症患者每月需要花费1万美元。从2008年到2013年，全球抗癌药物消费总额上涨了28%，达到了910亿美元。
众多投资商对持续上涨的抗癌药物价格表示担忧，因为他们以前的注意力放在丙肝药物的价格战上，现如今丙肝药物价格开始走低，吉利德年初就宣布其丙肝药物在2015年将会降价46%，实在是大快人心！而另一边，癌症用药价格之高又让人胆战心惊。医疗保险公司也开始对制造商施压，以惠及普通大众。
但众多制造商并不买账，他们认为抗癌药物如此昂贵是必然的，“肿瘤是一场不寻常的比赛。” AbbVie CEO Rick Gonzalez在一次采访中这么说道，“你跟你的病人谈论的是生与死的问题，并不是一个任意的话题，任何不合理的建议都可能会增加病人的生命危险。”
让人欣慰的是，北美最大的药方福利管理公司之一快捷药方公司(Express Scripts)表示会不遗余力地降低抗癌药物价格，提高癌症患者福利，他们已经有了初步的计划。
再看看抗癌药物市场，可以用一片繁荣来形容。Abbvie出价210亿美元收购Pharmacyclics，后者的抗癌药物Imbruvica经FDA批准上市，可以治疗四种类型的血癌，预估每年营利70亿美元。类似的兼并、收购呈遍地开花之势，不胜枚举。许多专注于癌症药物的小公司受到追捧，Puma Biotechnology股价上涨9.36%；Juno Therapeutics上涨12.6%；Kite Pharma上涨了1.5%；Bristol- Myers Squibb因为其黑色素瘤药物Opdivo最近获得FDA批准用于癌症治疗，股价上涨了7%。
尽管药品总体价格有了下跌之势，但癌症药物是个例外。Gonzalez说道：“癌症药物的价格会一直处在较大的变动之中，因为市场上没有针对同种适应症的雷同产品。”
FDA审批抗癌药物时，是根据不同的癌症以及癌症的不同阶段进行审核的，所以很少有相似的抗癌药物出现在市场上，想要依靠市场竞争遏制药价几乎不可能。
制药公司研发新药时更注重如何让癌症病人活得更长久，而不是减缓病症。百时美施贵宝公司的新药Opdivo能够延长癌症患者的寿命9.2个月，而化疗仅能延长6个月，所以Opdivo就获得了FDA批准。
另外，医生给病人开药时，更关注的是药效，而不是价格。
美国的医疗保险公司对于那些癌症幸存者的赔付额度达到家庭平均收入的两到三倍。
这些原因都催生了癌症药物的高价。
经济展望期刊上的一篇文章指出，现阶段抗癌药物的价格增长速度过快，已经超越了药物本身的价值。文章研究了从1995年到2013年间经审批的58种肿瘤药物，结果显示，癌症患者每延长一年寿命，需要支付的价钱在1995年是54，100美元，2013年上升到了207，000美元。
遗憾的是，未来几年抗癌药物价格会一直动荡不定，更别提下降了。
英文原文：Here Is Why Cancer Drug Prices Are Likely To Stay High
The per-person spending on cancer drugs has gone up 21% since last year， and is likely to continue going up
An alarming surge in the price of cancer drugs has attracted the attention of the government， health insurers and doctors who have put pressure on HCV drug makers to reduce the prices of these highly expensive drugs.
According to a report published in May 2014 by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics， the average cost of cancer treatment in US doubled to $10，000 a month in a decade. The report further indicates that spending on cancer drugs surged by 28% to an astonishing level of $91 billion from 2008 to 2013， worldwide.
Investors have been concerned about the increasing prices of oncology drugs in light of price cuts which were forced upon the hepatitis C treatment makers. Health insurers had been urging drug makers to lower the prices of their drugs claiming them to be unaffordable for a majority of the population. In December 2014， AbbVie Inc. (NYSE：ABBV) won exclusive coverage for its HCV drug， Veikira Pak， from the largest pharmacy manager in the US， Express Scripts Holding Company Ltd. (NASDAQ：ESRX)， as the drug-maker offered both of its HCV regimens at significantly discounted prices.
This forced the leader of the HCV market Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ：GILD) to offer a hefty discount for its HCV drugs to get them covered by pharmacy managers and insurers in order to make them accessible and available to the HCV population. The biotech announced earlier this year that it plans to offer a blended discount of around 46% in 2015.
The large drug makers and their shareholders， however， have set aside these concerns about the forced price cuts by citing the price increase to be inevitable in the case of cancer drugs. “Oncology is a different ballgame，” AbbVie Chief Executive Officer Rick Gonzalez said in an interview to Bloomberg. “You’re talking about life and death for these patients， it is not something you want to randomly start to manage in a way that would create risk for those patients."
However， Express Scripts indicated on Friday that it has similar plans for oncology drugs as it had for HCV drugs. The pharmacy benefits manager stated that “clear opportunities” to “lower oncology drug costs while improving care for cancer patients，” are present in the market.
The statement comes after a recent $21 billion deal by Abbvie to acquire Pharmacyclics Inc. (NYSE：PCYC)， the blood cancer treatment drugmaker. The main aim of the deal was to acquire Imbruvica， a drug approved for treatment of four different kinds of blood cancer. The drug is expected to generate revenue of $7 billion annually.
As prominent drug makers are on the lookout for similar acquisitions， stock companies involved in the development of cancer drugs shot up last week. Puma Biotechnology Inc (NYSE：PBYI) stock gained 9.36%； Juno Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ：JUNO) stock gained 12.6%， and Kite Pharma Inc. stock rose 1.5%. Bristol- Myers Squibb Co (NYSE：BMY) stock rose as much as 7% and is being seen as an attractive candidate for acquisition as its advanced melanoma drug， Opdivo recently received US FDA approval as a treatment for lung cancer as well.
There are reasons why despite a recent trend of drug prices going down in the healthcare sector， cancer drugs seem to be an exception. Gonzalez while commenting over his confidence in the oncology drug process mentioned， “I don’t see the same of dynamics playing out，” and， “there aren’t typically identical types of products” for the treatment the cancer conditions and indications.
There is little chance of a price decrease in similar cancer drugs through competition because the FDA has a policy of approving cancer drugs by disease type and stage. Doctors also tend to prescribe cancer drugs based on their perceived effectiveness for each specific cancer stage and patient.
Drug makers focus more on making sure their cancer drugs keep their patients alive longer rather than reducing the disease itself. US health insurers tend to pay prices that are two to three times over the average US household income for these survival benefits. Recently the FDA approved Opdivo of Bristol-Myers， because it was was found to increase the survival period of trial patients to a median of 9.2 months compared to six months for patients undergoing chemotherapy.
A study published by the Journal of Economic Perspectives indicates that prices currently being charged for cancer drugs are increasing at a rate which is faster than their survival advantages. A total of 58 oncology drugs which were approved between 1995 and 2013， were analyzed in the study and the results demonstrated that the prices paid by cancer patients for each additional year of life survived increased from $54，100 in 1995， to $207，000 in 2013.
With an increase of 21% in the per-person expense on cancer treatment and inhibiting drugs last year， and the dynamics at play， there is little chance of stability in the costs of the these drugs in the near future， let alone a decline.