To the editor,
President, National Breast Cancer Coalition
In the July 19 article “Platinum drugs are off the shortage list, but the underlying problem is unsolved,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and others describe a solution to the U.S. drug shortage as a matter of paying more for generic drugs.
It is disappointing that the leadership of the medical oncology and policy communities apparently believe that tweaking but ultimately perpetuating the existing system of drug pricing is the answer to drug shortages.
We should not be figuring out how to pay more for drugs to increase profit, but how to completely revise the system so that, across the board, cost is based on real value to patients.
We should not continue to support a system that deprives patients of what may be lifesaving drugs because of a small profit margin, nor should we countenance low quality cancer drugs. There is something very wrong about that approach.
The answer isn’t increasing the margins or quality metrics. The answer is a whole new system. These aren’t cars, they are people’s lives.
