Re: In medicine, cost and price are decoupled
[ Follow-Ups ]
[ Post Followup ]
[ The Islet Foundation Public Message Forum ]
Posted by Jay on 19:55:35 2009/06/23
In Reply to:
Re: In medicine, cost and price are decoupled posted by Al Gordon
The average cost of a heart transplant in the U.S., based on the always accurate wikipedia, is roughly $180K...and people get those all the time these days..in fact I'm guessing but I suspect that the market for hearts is about the same size as the market for islets.
Here in Canada transplants are covered by provincial health care...I don't see any logical barrier to getting islet transplants funded...it's just going to require work, and time.
In other parts of the world the battle will probably be significantly more difficult (i.e. the U.S.), but one can also get a heart transplant funded there, so it's not completely impossible.
Funding = more treatments/year = economies of scale = lower cost for future treatments.
In addition, once the R&D costs are amortized, the costs will also begin to drop.
And finally, we still don't even know how much it will cost...the $100,000 is pure speculation at this point, isn't it?
Follow Ups:
Post a Followup
[ Follow Ups ]
[ Post Followup ]
[ The Islet Foundation Public Message Forum ]