Innovation New Jersey
  • Home
  • Our Coalition
    • Contact Us
  • News
  • Resources
    • State Supports
    • Federal Supports
    • Higher Ed Supports
  • Join Us

Innovation News

Everything Innovation. Everything New Jersey.
Follow us and stay connected.

Commentary: Celgene CEO Mark Alles on ‘Getting Patients Access to Precision Medicines Is Crucial’

8/4/2017

0 Comments

 
Summit, NJ — The following commentary by Celgene Corporation Chief Executive Officer Mark Alles was published on August 3 on CNBC:
 
A decade ago, receiving a medicine designed for your specific genetic makeup or modifying your own immune cells to fight cancer may have seemed like something out of a science fiction novel. But today, “precision” medicines — tailored therapeutics based on a patient’s distinct genetic characteristics — are turning fiction into fact for many patients.
 
Since every person is unique, not only do precision medicines have the potential to bring highly effective therapies and high-value care to patients, they can also lower the overall cost of treating many of the most serious diseases. 
​The investments needed to discover and develop these medicines can substantially improve health outcomes, and reduce the cost of failing to appropriately target treatment, estimated to be tens of billions of dollars every year.
 
Tailoring medical treatment to the profile of each patient can enable physicians to identify the best course of treatment and often avoid or reduce adverse drug reactions and the toxic effects of medicines that may not be necessary.
 
For instance, according to a recent study published by JAMA Oncology, genetic profiling can predict which women with early-stage breast cancer have a lower risk for their cancer coming back after surgery, allowing up to 15 percent of patients to avoid unnecessary chemotherapy.
 
Most importantly, precision medicines can help patients live longer, healthier lives. Already, the first wave of precision medicines have entered mainstream clinical practice, including targeted therapies that now make it possible for patients with a once incurable form of leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, to live close-to-normal life spans.
 
Similarly, precision medicines are dramatically changing the treatment landscape for deadly cancers like non-small cell lung cancer and metastatic melanoma, not only increasing survival rates but also reducing the need for the costly procedures and hospitalizations that are now part of the standard of care for these diseases.
 
As a case study, consider acute myeloid leukemia (AML), one of the most serious and challenging blood cancers. Progress understanding and developing effective and safe therapy for patients with AML has been modest, and overall survival for patients with this terrible disease is measured in months.
 
According to a study published by the journal, Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, the average cost for the chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation involved in treating many patients with AML has been estimated to be between $280,000 and $500,000.
 
Discovering why this disease occurs and developing targeted medicines to treat it are really the only alternatives to help these patients and to reduce the cost of treatment failures.
 
Yet, to realize the promise of precision medicines, we must act collectively across the health-care ecosystem to ensure that patients who desperately need these transformational therapies have access to them.
 
A problem that too many Americans face when prescribed specialty medicines to treat complex or rare conditions is high out-of-pocket costs. Many patients with the most serious illnesses face high deductibles and coinsurance requirements, which often put the latest, safest and most-effective treatments out of their reach.
 
These patient cost-sharing barriers are one of the reasons half of the medicines used to treat chronic diseases are not taken as prescribed, contributing to the estimated $100 billion to $290 billion of unnecessary costs to the U.S. health-care system from medication non-adherence, as cited by the Annals of Internal Medicine and the New England Journal of Medicine.
 
We must do better. We need to work together to ensure access to these medicines and reduce the financial burden on patients.
 
Towards this end, Celgene is proactively working with major commercial U.S. health-care payers on arrangements designed to give eligible patients access to our most recently approved medicine — a precision therapy with an accompanying diagnostic test — without deductibles, co-pays and co-insurance.
 
By partnering with payers to offset and even eliminate patient cost-sharing as an obstacle to treatment, our hope is to prevent some of the financial burden that leads to many of the problems currently impacting patient care.
 
Our action is just one step in what will be needed to ensure access to the medicines Americans grappling with devastating diseases need. As health-care stakeholders, it is up to all of us to work together to develop market-based solutions to ensure that medical innovation continues to be valued, and that patients have affordable health care. We’re not there yet, but we are getting closer.
 
Celgene is working with U.S. commercial health-care payers to step up to that challenge. We are also committed to engaging with policy-makers on finding ways to develop innovative contracting strategies that can benefit patients with government insurance as well. We encourage others in the health-care ecosystem to join us in finding solutions to these challenges.
 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Do not miss a single innovative moment and sign up for our newsletter!
    Weekly updates


    Categories

    All
    3D Printing
    Academia
    Acquisitions
    Aerospace
    Agriculture
    AIDS
    Algae
    Alumni
    Animals
    Architecture
    Astrophysics
    Autism
    Awards
    Big Data
    Bioethics
    Biofuel
    Biomedical
    BioNJ
    Bioterrorism
    Bit Coins
    Brain Health
    Business
    Camden
    Cancer
    CCollege
    Cellular
    Centenary
    Chemistry
    ChooseNJ
    Climate Change
    Clinical Trials
    Cloud Tech
    Collaboration
    Computing
    Congress
    Coriell
    Council On Innovation
    Crowdfunding
    Cybersecurity
    DARPA
    Defense
    Degree
    Dementia
    Dental Health
    DOC
    DOD
    DOE
    Drew
    Drones
    Drug Creation
    Einstein's Alley
    Electricity
    Energy
    Engineering
    Entrepreneurship
    Environmental
    FAA
    Fairleigh Dickinson
    FDA
    Federal Budget
    Federal Government
    Federal Labs
    Federal Program
    Finance
    Food Science
    Fort Monmouth
    Fuel Cells
    Funding
    Genome
    Geography
    Geology
    Global Competition
    Google
    Governor Christie
    Grant
    Hackensack
    HackensackUMC
    Healthcare
    Health Care
    HHS
    HINJ
    Hospitals
    Immigration
    Incubator
    Infrastructure
    International
    Internet
    Investor
    IoT
    IP
    IT
    Jobs
    Johnson & Johnson
    K-12
    Kean
    Kessler
    Legislation
    Logistics
    Manufacturing
    Medical Devices
    Med School
    Mental Health
    Mentor
    Microorganisms
    Molecular Biology
    Montclair
    NAS
    Neuroscience
    Newark
    New Jersey
    NIFA
    NIH
    NIST
    NJBDA
    NJBIA
    NJ Chemistry Council
    NJCU
    NJDOLWD
    NJEDA
    NJEDge
    NJHF
    NJII
    NJIT
    NJMEP
    NJPAC
    NJPRO
    NJTC
    Nonprofit
    NSF
    OpEd
    Open Data
    OSHE
    OSTP
    Parasite
    Patents
    Paterson
    Patients
    Perth Amboy
    Pharma
    POTUS
    PPPL
    Princeton
    Prosthetics
    Ranking
    Rare Disease
    R&D Council
    Report
    Resiliency
    Rider
    Robotics
    Rowan
    Rutgers
    SBA
    Seton Hall
    Siemens
    Smart Car
    Smart Cities
    Software
    Solar
    Space
    SSTI
    Startup
    State Government
    STEM
    Stevens
    Stockton
    Subatomic
    Supports
    Sustainability
    Taxes
    TCNJ
    Teachers
    Telecom
    Therapy
    Thermodynamics
    Transportation
    Undergraduate
    USEDA
    Verizon
    Video Game
    Virtual Reality
    Water
    WHO
    William Paterson
    Women In STEM
    Workforce Development

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.