In March 2020, 10-year-old Huang Xiaocheng was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma. This extremely aggressive malignant tumor made this poor family miserable. Huang Xiaocheng's weak body can't stand long-term chemotherapy. During the treatment, he can't eat for two weeks, and he can only rely on nutrient solution to maintain his life.
Four weeks after the onset, Huang Xiaocheng got acute appendicitis and had another operation. Until now, Huang Xiaocheng is still fighting against diseases.
The doctor told his father, Mr. Huang, that the child's illness could be cured. The cure rate of this disease is higher than that of leukemia, but the treatment cost is also high. From admission to now, Mr. Huang has spent 3 1000 yuan, and the cost of follow-up treatment has overwhelmed his parents.
Huang Xiaocheng couldn't bear to watch his father run around to borrow money. "Every time I hear my dad calling around to borrow money, I want to die."
The boy tried to unplug the infusion tube and give up treatment.
The disease is gradually pushing families in Huang Xiaocheng to despair, and the high drug price is the direct cause of the high medical expenses.
The tragedy of the Huang Xiaocheng family can't help but remind people of the movie "Desire for Survival". The prototype of Lu Yong, the hero of the film, is a patient with chronic myeloid leukemia who needs long-term medication.
Due to the high price of genuine drugs, he decided to buy generic drugs to continue his life after accidentally learning that there were generic drugs in India. The generic drugs he brought back from India saved the lives of countless patients. After he was arrested by the police for "selling counterfeit drugs", 300 patients jointly requested the judicial organs to exempt him from criminal punishment.
There are no villains in Lu Yong's story.
Lu Yong and his patients need to take Gleevec for a long time, and a box is as high as 23,500 yuan. Lu Yong was engaged in textile export business before his illness, and his economic conditions were much better than most people.
But even for him, the price of Gleevec is unbearable. In order to treat himself, Wing-kuen Luk almost went bankrupt. Those patients whose financial conditions are far less than his must be in a more difficult situation.
Patients buy generic drugs just to survive.
But pharmaceutical companies will not sit on the ground. They have to sell drugs at high prices.
Do you know how many years it takes to research a new drug?
To develop a new drug, the research team first needs to spend 2-3 years in the laboratory to find new compounds for specific diseases.
Then, preclinical experiments were carried out for 2~4 years to study the pharmacological and toxicological effects of new compounds, stabilize the quality and medicinal properties, and develop the production technology.
After that, it is a clinical trial stage of 3~7 years, through which the safety and effectiveness of the drug are evaluated.
After the new drug is approved for marketing, it needs post-marketing research, and it will be approved after marketing for 4~ 10 years.
The "Gleevec" with a price of 23,500 yuan has been developed for 50 years, and Novartis Pharmaceutical, which developed the drug, invested 5 billion US dollars for it. Many academicians of the American Academy of Sciences have devoted themselves to the research and development of the drug.
In most countries, the patent period of new drugs is between 10 and 20 years, which means that Novartis needs to earn back the cost within 20 years before it can develop the next drug.
Some patients' families have denounced the pharmaceutical factory for eating "human blood steamed bread" but not eating "human blood steamed bread". In fact, the patient has no medicine at all. Although high-priced drugs are expensive, they do bring a glimmer of life to many patients.
There is nothing wrong with the patients. They just want to live.
There is nothing wrong with pharmaceutical companies, they just want to recover the cost.
How can we adjust the contradiction between the two sides? Both sides pinned their hopes on the country.
Patients hope that medical insurance can bear part of the treatment costs and reduce the economic burden. Pharmaceutical companies also hope that the state will intervene. With the bottom of the medical insurance fund, the consumption power of patients will naturally rise sharply.
And the country is really trying to reduce the burden on patients.
The General Office of the State Council issued guidance on promoting the research and development of generic drugs and improving relevant policies and systems.
At the same time, China also began to implement zero tariffs on imported drugs, trying to reduce the price of drugs by reducing tariffs.
In 20 17, more than ten kinds of targeted anticancer drugs were included in China's medical insurance catalogue through centralized medical insurance negotiations, and the prices of these targeted drugs were greatly reduced.
In 20 19, in the new round of drug list adjustment, the national medical insurance bureau put more than 100 kinds of high-priced drugs into the negotiation list, most of which involved cancer and major rare diseases. There are many new drugs that have just been approved in recent years.
From June 5438 to February 2020, China adjusted the medical insurance catalogue again. Although the specific results have not yet been announced, some media revealed that Erica, which is used to treat classic Hodgkin's lymphoma in Hengrui Pharma, reduced its price by over 80% and entered medical insurance.
Medical insurance has been adjusted for three consecutive years, and the state has been working hard to prevent patients from becoming poor due to illness.