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New Mexicans spent $36.5 million last year treating a fraction of the state’s Medicaid hepatitis C patients, and a good portion of that was for a prescription medication that cures the liver-wasting disease. State taxpayers are on pace to make that price tag look like a deal this year, spending $17 million in the first quarter alone to treat just 301 patients.
When a 12-week course of the drug Harvoni, made by California drugmaker Gilead Sciences, costs $93,000, it’s easy to see how the bill gets that high that quickly. What’s hard to see is why the exact same 12-week treatment, made by Natco Pharma in India – with Gilead’s blessing – costs just $900.
And why states like New Mexico would have to continue to overspend scarce public dollars to treat a fraction of their Hep C population, in effect rationing care to just the sickest, when with a more reasonable price they should be able to treat all of it.
The latest Hep C treatment plan from the New Mexico Department of Human Services is to treat 1,750 patients a year through 2020 and all Medicaid patients with hepatitis C within a decade.
Considering it costs less than $5,000 to fly from Albuquerque to New Delhi and back, it would be more cost effective for New Mexico to start taking each of its estimated 45,000 Hep C patients to see the Taj Mahal and get them a 12-week supply of Indian-made generic Harvoni (aka Hepcinat LP).
Under that medical tourism scheme, state taxpayers could treat 15.5 patients for the cost of one here.
Read more…https://www.abqjournal.com/888045/its-cheaper-to-fly-to-india-than-treat-hep-c-in-nm.html