[Christa's Mom]

U.S. wastes $3 billion a year on discarded cancer drugs

by Christa's Mom on Wed Mar 02, 2016 4:48 pm

An interesting article from the Washington Post:

"Americans are wasting $3 billion a year on discarded cancer drugs," March 1, 2016 (full text of article)

Excerpt:

Almost $3 billion a year in expensive cancer drugs are wasted because their single-use packages contain more medication than is needed -- and the leftover drug is thrown away for safety reasons, according to a new analysis by researchers.

The study focused on 20 cancer drugs that are infused -- administered intravenously or injected -- by doctors' offices or hospitals. These come in dosages based on patients' weights and body sizes, but often the doses are too large and the remainder is tossed out, the analysis found.

Here's the journal article referred to in the Post article:

PB Bach et al, "Overspending driven by oversized single dose vials of cancer drugs," BMJ, March 1, 2016 (full text of article)

Table 1 breaks down the 20 drugs that were investigated.

Lyn

[JPC]

Re: U.S. wastes $3 billion a year on discarded cancer drugs

by JPC on Thu Mar 03, 2016 8:02 am

Hi Lyn,

I saw a slightly different version of that same article. I think it came from the New York Times. In that article, they only cited one drug, Velcade. They also stated that 30% of all cancer drugs are being wasted in the headline. Probably in the fine print they said somewhere "up to" 30%. Your article was better. Table 1 calculated an overall wastage rate of 10%. I was thinking, probably not that bad, but could possibly be improved.

The suggestion is to make smaller vials to be used for the smaller people. The Velcade vial has the dose for a 250-pound person. It is probably something very doable to add one or two more sizes. If they did, I am thinking that the wastage may be reduced from 10% to 5%.

Thank you for posting the interesting article.