Personalised medicine v. National debt

Another day, another expensive cancer treatment gets rejected on cost grounds.  This time it's the turn of Novartis' renal cancer drug Afinitor: -

Despite appeals from Novartis and Kidney Cancer UK against the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence's decision, the watchdog maintains that Afinitor (everolimus) simply does not provide enough benefit to justify its high cost...

The overall treatment cost (is) about £34,235 per patient per year, or around £205,000 for a full course of treatment.

Pharma Times Online, April 19

These stories are commonplace across the Western World and for the moment, they are seen as part of the everyday argy-bargy of Big Pharma's negotiations with the national governments that are their ultimate customers.

But note the complete alignment between the pharma company and Kidney Cancer UK, a patient advocacy group that most likely receives funding from Novartis.  As stated previously, I have no problem with pharma companies pushing the patient to the centre of the treatment discussion.  There are neither cloaks nor daggers here and Kidney Cancer UK would exist even without the support of the various purveyors of renal cancer therapies.

As cancer is a quasi-chronic condition (i.e. one you see coming and so fight on your own behalf), sufferers and their families tend to be highly motivated people with an automatic tendency towards political agitation.  Cancer is hitting the baby boomers hard and they're unlikely to accept the withholding of any therapies whatsoever.  They will place inordinate pressure on a health system, which often leads to politicians creating release mechanisms: -

If doctors feel that any of these individual patients would benefit from the drug then they can still apply for exceptional funding from their primary care trust or the Cancer Drugs Fund, the Institute noted.

Ibid

All of which is fine if you live in the UK (and have a doctor sufficiently motivated to fight the good fight on your behalf).

But what if you're a Greek, Portuguese or Irish national?  As sad as your story undoubtedly is, given its current financial predicament, can your government honestly justify spending €38,500 on one citizen when that amounts to a year's wages for a senior nurse?

Watch the Greek, Portuguese and (especially) Irish baby boomers heap increasing political pressure on their governments; directly via advocacy groups and indirectly by turning up in person at British, German and French cancer centres.  Then watch for renewed pressure on the cost of the drugs themselves.