Apr
14
Health insurance companies are rapidly adopting a new pricing system for very expensive drugs, asking patients to pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars for prescriptions for medications that may save their lives or slow the progress of serious diseases.
With the new pricing system, insurers abandoned the traditional arrangement that has patients pay a fixed amount, like $10, $20 or $30 for a prescription, no matter what the drug’s actual cost. Instead, they are charging patients a percentage of the cost of certain high-priced drugs, usually 20 to 33 percent, which can amount to thousands of dollars a month.
The system means that the burden of expensive health care can now affect insured people, too.
No one knows how many patients are affected, but hundreds of drugs are priced this new way. They are used to treat diseases that may be fairly common, including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, hepatitis C and some cancers. There are no cheaper equivalents for these drugs, so patients are forced to pay the price or do without.
Insurers say the new system keeps everyone’s premiums down at a time when some of the most innovative and promising new treatments for conditions like cancer and rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis can cost $100,000 and more a year.
But the result is that patients may have to spend more for a drug than they pay for their mortgages, more, in some cases, than their monthly incomes.
more: Co-Payments for Expensive Drugs Soar - New York Times
Apr
10
Pregnant multiple sclerosis patients have long noticed a sharp reduction in their symptoms - only to see them reappear after giving birth.
It’s what tipped off researchers to the potential power of estriol, a type of estrogen that surges during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy to help prevent the body from rejecting the fetus. But new research shows it may do much more.
In a pilot study at UCLA, women took Trimesta, a synthesized form of estriol used in Europe and Asia for treating hot flashes. They showed an 80 percent reduction in M.S.-related lesions on the brain within three months of treatment. After six months, their cognitive function improved by 14 percent.
Now the Pipex Pharmaceuticals drug is being studied at the University of Utah and six other sites in the country in a three-year, Phase II clinical study.
Study uses hormones to treat multiple sclerosis - Salt Lake Tribune
Apr
9
Multiple Sclerosis: Nature, Nurture, or Something Else?
Filed Under News, Research | Leave a Comment
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a poorly understood disease that affects patients at an early age and, usually, lasts a lifetime. Factors that predispose to the development of MS include genetics, geographic location, sex and birth month, suggesting an interesting nature-nurture interaction in this disease process.
Multiple Sclerosis: Nature, Nurture, or Something Else? | GNIF Brain Blogger