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Sandy Srinivas, MD
Sandy Srinivas, MD
Posted: Monday, April 3, 2023
Ruchika Talwar, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, and colleagues have studied the high cost of prescription drugs in the United States and how it affects patients with prostate cancer and other urologic diseases. Their study highlights the potential benefits of the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (MCCPDC) model in reducing drug prices and increasing patient access. The researchers used the 2020 Medicare Part D spending data to identify the most used oral drugs in urology by volume and calculated the potential Medicare savings if the drugs were purchased through the MCCPDC model.
“Just by changing the way one commonly prescribed drug (abiraterone) was purchased, we could convey a benefit of more than $650 million in cost savings to taxpayers,” said Dr. Talwar in a Vanderbilt University press release. “The impact of this could be astronomical across all cancers.…”
The top nine oral urology drugs studied were abiraterone, tamsulosin, finasteride, oxybutynin, alfuzosin, solifenacin, tolterodine, sildenafil, and tadalafil. The study found that all 90-day prescription drug prices offered by the MCCPDC model generated cost savings for Medicare, with the percentage savings ranging from 48.7% to 99.2%. For the 30-day prescription model, all drugs except tamsulosin and finasteride generated cost savings for Medicare. The percentage of cost savings for the 30-day prescription model ranged from 16.9% to 98.9%.
The study concluded that the MCCPDC model has the potential to significantly reduce drug costs for patients and increase patient access to urologic drugs. Specifically, the researchers described a potential savings of approximately $1.29 billion in 2020 if Medicare prices for generic drugs were as low as those offered under the MCCPDC model.
Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.
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