Price hikes in cancer drugs mean Swedish patients wait for months to receive medications, with waiting times varying depending on where patients live.
A breast cancer patient called Jeanette told Swedish Radio News that she was promised a trial of the new medicine Perjeta over a year ago but still has not received any.
“First they said it could take a month, but after one month the medicine was still not available. I have waited, searched online, tried to call around, but it’s just been a long wait,” Jeanette said.
Jeanette is not alone. Many cancer patients have had to wait for long periods to receive their medication while a national system for introducing new, expensive pharmaceuticals is being developed.
In recent years, a series of new medicines have been introduced on the market at significantly higher prices than previously. In several cases, the Swedish Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency (TLV) has determined that they have been too expensive and that the benefits do not outweigh the costs. Instead, a group of county council officials have turned to pharmaceutical companies to try to bring down prices in secret negotiations.
With county councils trying to negotiate prices on their own instead of following collective deals and with individual hospitals and clinics halting some newer cancer medications because they are too costly, a confusing system has emerged in Sweden where nobody seems to know the real costs of the medicines. And patients end up suffering, in some cases waiting for months and in some cases being denied effective medicines.
Professor Jonas Bergh of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm is concerned about the situation.
”If we had the ability to see to patients’ interests we would not have this situation where it takes a very long time to introduce medicines in Sweden and where there can be great differences in patients’ access to medicines,” Bergh told Swedish Radio News.
Source: Radio Sweden
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