22 January 2018 - One of the key factors that leads to higher costs with all drugs—not just those for cancer treatment—is the way the cost of these drugs is reimbursed, says Anna Kaltenboeck, program director and senior health economist at Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Center for Health Policy and Outcomes.

“The purchasing and reimbursement system that we have in place favors higher prices, because the purchasing and prescribing intermediaries that are involved in that supply chain have proportional incentives associated with the price of drugs,” she adds.

Kaltenboeck notes that pharmacy benefit management firms also have an impact on drug prices, in particular when it comes to rebates. “They also benefit from that higher list price that they can negotiate down from,” she says.

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