The cost of cancer treatment

BITTER PILL: Is the cost of cancer treatment prohibitively high for the average Indian?

    

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New Delhi: Most cancer patients in India reel under the pressure of expensive treatment. The very diagnosis of this incurable disease spells worries for a cancer patient’s family. What hits them even harder is the exorbitant amount of money charged by the pharma companies for the drugs that are crucial for a cancer patient’s survival at an advanced stage.

Most American pharma companies producing and selling these drugs in India have a patent over them. The patients have no choice but to pay the market price since none of the Indian companies are producing those medicines here. Although the Indian government does provides free / subsidized treatment at the cancer centres, a patient has to go for expensive advanced-level treatment to increase his chances of survival.

CNN-IBN citizen journalist Tanweer Alam brings up the plight of the middle-class families of cancer patients in India—who battle death, cancer and the financial crunch of an expensive life-saving treatment.

Tanweer has been paying Rs 1,30,000 for each dose of medicines. The cost—to average Indian family—means putting together 12-years of earnings to slightly improve a cancer patient’s chances of survival.

Is the cost of cancer treatment prohibitively high for the average Indian?

Tanweer a bright management professional from IIM was diagnosed with cancer when he was at the helm of his career. The 23-year-old decided to fight the disease. He tried to find out what are his chances of survival. “It was extremely difficult for me. I was trying to set up a small firm of my own when the cancer diagnosis hit me. All my finances were exhausted in the treatment. I am depending upon my father to get the funds for the treatment. It is extremely difficult for a middle-class family to afford cancer treatment,” he says.

The pharma companies are patent-protected and are under no pressure to lower down the prices of the cancer drugs. In that case, the onus lies on the government to do something to make these drugs available at affordable prices.