British supermarket says to sell cancer drugs at cost

[demoleft]

Source: afp

AFP - British supermarket chain Asda said on Thursday that it is to sell cancer drugs at cost-price and called on its peers who make massive profits on the treatments to follow suit.

The group, owned by the world's biggest retailer US supermarket giant Wal-Mart, said its initiative follows the success of a similar scheme by Asda for in-vitro fertility (IVF) treatments.

...
Asda said the lung cancer drug Iressa will be sold by the chain for 2,167.71 pounds (2,508 euros, 3,102 dollars) for a pack of 30. Some leading pharmacies are selling the same item for more than 3,250 pounds, it claimed.

Asda will also sell at cost price the leukaemia drug Glivec, Nexavar for kidney and liver cancer, as well as Sutent for kidney and stomach tumours.

Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20100520-british-supermarket-says-sell-cancer-drugs-cost

[DavidDvorkin]

1. 700 pounds per pill

Gadzooks.

[dana_b]

2. cancer treatment is big bucks!

I used to work on a pediatric oncology unit and the prices of the meds were astronomical. Some were up to $5000+ per treatment.

[ejpoeta]

3. money is in the treatment not the cure. that's why there are so many drugs to treat

everything. granted, it's not like we can cure everything, but the incentive is not there to cure things. there are doctors who want to cure things, but i bet the research money goes to treatments that someone will have to take for a long period of time. or for the rest of their lives.