|
E-mail this page to a friend!
Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Diabetes Drug Spending May Surge 70% by 2010, Cancer
Now Drives Specialty Drugs
Medco finds generics, Medicare Part D
keeping increases down
 May 17, 2007 The amount of money Americans spend
on treating diabetes could jump by 70 percent by the end of 2009, due to
the aging population, obesity and more aggressive treatment. Diabetes
treatment, however, does not come close to cancer drug costs, which is
now the driving force in specialty drug spending increases. The good
news is more generics and the Medicare drug program are holding down
some costs.
These new forecasts are revealed in Medco Health
Solutions 2007 Drug Trend Report, an analysis of prescription drug
spending and utilization. Medco is one of the nation's leading pharmacy
benefit managers.
| |
Related Stories |
|
| |
Physician Ties to Drug Manufacturers are Standard
Practice, Finds Survey
Cardiologists, Group Practice Doctors Much More
Likely To Be Paid By Industry
April 25, 2007
Medicare Drug Program Helps to Slow Growth in Health
Care Spending Again
Still, this year's $2.1 trillion spent by Americans
will double in 10 years
Feb. 21, 2007
Cardiovascular Drugs Top U.S. Drug Spending; Senior
Citizens Buy over Half
Second for seniors - cholesterol-lowering drugs;
for all adults - hormones
Feb. 12, 2007
Slower Growth in Drug Spending Tempers Growth in
Health Expenditures
Health care spending grows at slowest pace since
1999, but nears $2 trillion
January 9, 2007 A sharp deceleration in Medicaid
drug spending, changes in therapy regimens, tiered copayment benefit
plans, and increased use of generic drugs slowed the rise in
prescription drug spending to 5.8 percent in 2005, a dramatic drop from
8.6 percent in 2004 and from 18.2 percent in 1999.
Read more...
Big Year for Senior Citizens to Save on Generic
Drugs, Even in Medicare
Flood of new generic drugs having major impact on
cost for seniors
July 17, 2006
Read the latest news on Senior
Health & Medicine |
|
The combination of factors is expected to push
spending growth rates on diabetes medications upward 16 to 20 percent
annually as use increases each year by 8 to 10 percent and patients more
frequently use new drug combinations to reach blood sugar targets.
The driving forces in this spiraling expenditure on
endocrine and diabetes therapies include the continued increase in the
number of older people, the primary victims of type 2 diabetes; the
spread of the disease among younger Americans; the widespread increase
in obesity, and more aggressive treatment.
"Diabetes, and in particular, type 2 diabetes, is
becoming much more prevalent among people of all ages, imposing a
growing burden on health plan sponsors who pay for their care and
creating a significant health care concern in America," said Medco Chief
Medical Officer Dr. Robert S. Epstein.
"While prevention of type 2 diabetes needs to be a
national priority, drug treatments can help prevent the onset of
complications from diabetes that lead to hospitalizations, more complex
treatment and dramatically higher costs."
Diabetes treatment just behind cholesterol drugs
in driving drug spending growth
The Medco report finds that diabetes treatments
were the second leading contributor in total dollars to prescription
drug spending growth in 2006, trailing only cholesterol drugs. Spending
on diabetes treatments increased 14.5 percent from 2005 to 2006 and the
use of diabetes drugs increased 5.1 percent.
New treatments for diabetes are expected to drive
unit costs higher as some newer drugs are increasingly prescribed as
first-line therapy. New injectable treatments and oral diabetes
medications that act upon new targets have hit the market in recent
years.
Novel diabetes treatments in the pipeline will also
help push costs upward in the future. The analysis projects that by
2009, spending on medicines to treat diabetes could soar by 60 to 68
percent from 2006 levels.
Programs to encourage the use of lower cost generic
drugs and health plan design initiatives that encourage the use of mail
service could mitigate pricing pressures in this category. Health plan
initiatives to encourage more preventive care can also curb spending
growth.
"For those patients who depend on medications to
avoid serious complications, compliance is paramount," said Epstein.
"Lower-cost drugs help remove barriers to compliance, as do safety
programs that identify non- compliant patients and provide additional
counseling to modify the behaviors and foster more positive outcomes."
In addition to its efforts to make prescription
care more affordable, Medco says it is addressing the needs of its two
million diabetic members through two of the Medco Therapeutic Resource
Centers (TRCs) specializing in diabetes care.
In these Diabetes TRCs specialist pharmacists can
monitor patient care more effectively, which could lead to better
compliance. Additionally through Medco's collaboration with Healthways,
Inc., the company offers its Optimal Health program, which combines the
integrated data and service capabilities of a PBM with disease
management techniques, to engage patients with chronic conditions and
provide a more personalized level of care.
Cancer drugs drive specialty drug spending
With drug regimens running $5,000 to $10,000 per
month, cancer therapies have emerged as a leading driver of drug costs
with more expensive niche medications displacing older products as
standard treatment.
Specialty cancer treatments - both the injectable
drugs that require unique handling requirements and the newer oral
medications - experienced tremendous growth in 2006. Utilization of
these cancer drugs grew 8.6 percent while the growth in spending reached
almost 38 percent, overtaking rheumatologic drugs as the number one
contributor to specialty drug trend.
Rapid adoption of new, higher cost therapies, such
as Nexavar, Revlimid and Sutent, contributed to the sharp increase in
the average cost of treatment. Many of the newer drugs supplement
existing cancer treatments, a factor that could also boost utilization
in the coming years.
Almost 25 percent of all new drugs and biologics
approved last year were cancer treatments and more than 500 new cancer
drugs and indications for existing drugs are under development.
"These breakthrough drugs are shifting cancer
therapy from a short-term focus to a long-term maintenance treatment,
making cancer a disease that, with increasing frequency, you can live
with," Epstein said.
"These treatments are still physically demanding
and have some side effects, but they are better targeted to the cancer
and better tolerated by the patient. In addition, advances in medicine,
such as genetic testing, are allowing us to determine what drugs are
most effective in patients.
This new information can help get the patient to
the right medication at the right dose faster, which can result in a
better outcome for the patient while saving time and money."
Drug trend falls to 2.8 percent with Medicare
Part D, generic drugs
Cancer treatments and diabetes drugs portend
challenges for managing prescription drug spending, but despite these
growth drivers, the report finds that 2006 drug spending in Medco's book
of business grew by only 2.8 percent, largely due to the increased use
of generic drugs and changes brought on by Medicare Part D.
Generic versions of blockbuster products such as
Zocor and Zoloft hit the market last year, creating opportunities to
better control prescription spending. Medco's report shows the overall
generic dispensing rate in 2006 increased to 55.2 percent, a significant
increase over the 51.5 percent rate in 2005. In the first quarter of
2007, the generic dispensing rate reached an all-time high of 58.2
percent, up 4.5 percentage points from the same period a year ago.
"The generic dispensing rate could exceed 60
percent this year acting as a countervailing measure to control pharmacy
costs especially with our aging population, where use continues to
rise," said David B. Snow Jr., Medco chairman and CEO.
"This year alone, we've already seen billions of
dollars worth of drugs such as Norvasc(R) and Ambien(R) facing strong
generic competition. The availability of generic equivalents for these
blockbuster brand-name drugs, combined with Medco's programs to promote
the use of generic alternatives, will generate hundreds of millions of
dollars in savings for our clients and their members annually."
The drug trend figure also reflects changes due to
the 2006 introduction of Medicare Part D plans, which offered
significant new options and subsidies for benefit plan sponsors.
About Medco
Medco Health Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MHS)
is the nation's leading pharmacy benefit manager based on its 2006 total
net revenues of more than $42 billion. Medco's prescription drug benefit
programs are designed to drive down the cost of pharmacy health care for
private and public employers, health plans, labor unions and government
agencies of all sizes, and for individuals served by the Medicare Part D
Prescription Drug Program. Medco's technologically advanced mail-order
pharmacies and award-winning Internet pharmacy have been recognized for
setting new industry benchmarks for pharmacy dispensing quality. Medco
serves the needs of patients with complex conditions requiring
sophisticated treatment through its specialty pharmacy operation, which
became the nation's largest with the 2005 acquisition of Accredo Health,
Incorporated. Medco is the highest-ranked pharmacy benefit manager on
the 2006 Fortune 500 list. On the Net:
http://www.medco.com/.
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
