$606,000: one-year Big Pharma cancer treatment cos

$606,000: one-year Big Pharma cancer treatment costs (all things considered) -- for one year life extension (at the outside) for one patient.

"I want to emphasize it’s not that we can have a year of life saved for $303,000. That’s probably less than half of what the actual cost would be when you factor in everything .” Zaltrap, he (Dr. Saltz) figured, was probably going to be in the same range."

"In 2012, the overall market for 'oncologics' ( cancer treatment drugs ) reached nearly $26 billion a year in the U.S. alone , and annual global sales are projected to total $85 billion by 2016, according to the IMS Institute for Health Informatics."

Note: EvaluatePharma estimates current annual sales of $84 billion for current global "oncologics" market.

New York Magazine : "The Cost of Living. New drugs could extend cancer patients’ lives—by days at a cost of thousands and thousands of dollars, prompting some doctors to refuse to use them."

http://nymag.com/news/features/cancer-drugs-2013-10/

"On August 3, 2012, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new cancer drug called Zaltrap as a safe and effective treatment for patients with advanced colon cancer. The approval was based on a large-scale clinical trial that showed that Zaltrap, given in combination with three previously approved drugs to patients who had failed initial therapy, extended median overall survival by 42 days. "

"I want to emphasize it’s not that we can have a year of life saved for $303,000. That’s probably less than half of what the actual cost would be when you factor in everything .” Zaltrap, he (Dr. Saltz) figured, was probably going to be in the same range."

"An estimated 1.7 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year , according to the National Cancer Institute , and more than 580,000 people will die from some form of malignancy."

Note: Cancer is the cause in one out of every four deaths in America each year . (NCI)