Study finds that US cancer patents 2.7 times more likely to declare bankruptcy due to drug costs

As advancements in cancer therapies have been making headlines in recent years, cancer drug prices have significantly increased. The remaining question is, what are the economic impacts of the differentiations in cost of Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs and the purchasing power of individuals around the world?

This study, published in peer-reviewed, open access biomedical journal Oncotarget, titled “A global comparison of the cost of patented cancer drugs in relation to global differences in wealth” identifies several critical factors impacting cancer patients.

An international group of researchers, led by Dr Daniel Goldstein, systematically obtained the prices of 8 FDA approved and patented cancer drugs in seven participating countries, and assessed international differences in wealth by collecting values for gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in addition to average salaries. To compare affordability of cancer drugs between countries, drug prices were converted to US dollars using both foreign exchange rates and purchasing power parity (PPP) and then dividing the converted drug prices by the markers of wealth.