Montauk Point
Originally uploaded by ryaninmtv
I have been thinking about Long Island the last couple of weeks. I haven’t been there in a couple of months and absolutely love it. I think I would rather live on Long Island (waaaay out on Long Island) than in NYC proper. This way, you’re two hours from the city but have the beach and trees and such (not to mention housing is exceedingly more affordable in a New York way). I’m hoping to head back next month. We’ll see what happens.
Man, I do miss Montauk.
So, I’m working at home today (which is also my office as most of you know) and I’m evaluating the future medical cost of a case I’m working on. Not much shocks me about the price of healthcare anymore but this caused me to do a doubletake. The drug in question is Actiq, a lozenge (or lollipop) made with Fentynl which is a Schedule II (ie, very strong and addictive) narcotic. The primary purpose (or on-label use) for this drug is to address breakthrough pain in cancer patients. It is however, prescribed in a variety of cases (largely workers’ compensation) for all types of chronic pain. As a side note, the manufacturer of this specific drug, because a competing drug was scheduled to come out within twelve months, raised the retail cost of the drug 100% to milk profits prior to having competition. In New York, this is called a racket. In pharmaceuticals, it’s call patent protection.
So here’s the doubletake, a 30 day supply of Actiq is almost $5,000.00. That’s for 150 lozenges or literally, about $30 bucks a pop. Now, imagine you are taking this drug on-label for cancer pain. In addition, you’re taking the drugs for chemo, to boost red and/or white blood cells, for nausea, and pain. It gets very expensive, very quickly. It is also breaking the back of our system. I don’t know what the answer is but this isn’t it.
