Video: Every Case Tells a Story| Webinar: ACR/CHEST ILD Guidelines in Practice

An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

The Birth and Growth of Biotechnology, and the Impact of Biologic Drugs on Rheumatology

  |  Issue: June 2017  |  

Congress, the ball and the stick are back in your court. Are you prepared to use either?

Simon M. Helfgott, MDSimon M. Helfgott, MD, is associate professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

References

  1. Russo E. Special report: The birth of biotechnology. Nature. 2003 Jan;421:456–457.
  2. Whalen J. Why the U.S. pays more than other countries for drugs. The Wall Street Journal. 2015 Dec 1.
  3. Raymond N. Martin Shkreli, who raised drug prices from $13.50 to $750, arrested in securities fraud probe. Scientific American. (n.d.).
  4. Cuprimine prices, coupons and patient assistance programs. Drugs.com. 2017 May 2 (updated).
  5. Gray RES, Doherty SM, Galloway J, et al. A double blind study of deflazacort and prednisone in patients with chronic inflammatory disorders. Arthritis Rheum. 1991 Mar;34(3):287–295.
  6. Johnson CY. An old drug gets a new price to fight a rare disease: $89,000 a year. The Washington Post. 2017 Feb 10.
  7. Morgensen G. To stop price spikes on prescription drugs, a widening radar. The New York Times. 2016 Dec 23.
  8. Walker J. Drugmakers point finger at middlemen for rising drug prices. The Wall Street Journal. 2016 Oct 3.
  9. Chen C. Drugmakers are trying a new strategy: Charging less. Bloomberg. 2017 Mar 30.
  10. Clerici JM. Federal gov’t won’t march in when it comes to drug prices. Law 360. 2016 Jul 11.
  11. Li D, Azoulay P, Sampat BN. The applied value of public investments in biomedical research. Science. 2017 Apr 7;356(6333):78–81.

Related Articles

    Generic-Drug Price Fixing: Is It Happening?

    It started with an inhaler. Like many of you, I am a rheuma­tologist. And like you, I see some patients more often their own primary care provider. This is so often the case that I have gradually devolved into their backup, all-purpose doctor. I am the doc they notify when they get hospitalized for pneumonia…

    High Cost of Specialty Drugs Demands Action

    Amid rising drug costs and the growing influence of pharmacy benefit managers on patient care decisions, physicians are increasingly called upon to advocate for affordable, evidence-based treatments for their patients.

    Rheumatologists Concerned High Healthcare Costs May Encourage Patients to Forgo, Delay Treatment

    While members of Congress debate healthcare legislation, rheumatologists say many of their patients struggle to afford everything from generic drugs to insurance copayments for physical therapy. “It’s a mess. The cost of prescriptions and the rationale for those rising costs in the U.S. right now—it’s just a mess,” says James R. O’Dell, MD, Stokes-Shackleford Professor of…

    A 52-Year-Old Lupus Paper Remains Important Today

    Over 50 years ago, an article appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine: “Immunologic Factors and Clinical Activity in Systemic Lupus Erythema­tosus.”1 Written by a young postdoctoral fellow, Peter H. Schur, MD, and colleagues, the article synthesized important work in the field at the time. What follows is a discussion of the historical context…