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November 19, 2009
British Bureauweenies Nix Anti-Cancer Drug
Posted by Van Helsing at November 19, 2009 7:49 AM
Socialized medicine doesn't really mean death panels. It means pleasantly named bureaucracies like Britain's NICE, which has just ruled that those with liver cancer are a burden on The State and must die quickly for the greater good. What use are taxpayers who are too sick to pay taxes?
The health watchdog has blocked a critical liver cancer drug, saying it is too pricey for the state health service, leaving manufacturer Bayer vowing to appeal the decision.
Most people who get the aggressive form of cancer are diagnosed too late for surgery to help, meaning that the drug — Nexavar — is one of the only options left, and it has been shown to prolong life by almost four months on average.
The decision, announced on Thursday, is a setback for Germany's Bayer and its partner Onyx Pharmaceuticals, which have already seen Nexavar turned down by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to treat kidney cancer.
NICE said in the final draft recommendation it would not recommend Bayer's Nexavar to the National Health Service (NHS) for the most common type of liver cancer as it was too expensive…
In a free country, you can have whatever drug you want, provided you have arranged to pay for it. But no doubt bureaucrats know best when it's time for us to die.
On a tip from Gore blimey, the sky is falling.
Comments
It is also worth mentioning that the cost/benefit ratio for chemotherapy drugs under rationed systems is skewed towards less effectiveness, since the delay in finding cancers (due to rationed diagnostics) limits the options of doctors to pursue effective treatment.
For a good look at this problem, read some studies comparing the rate of cancers not diagnosed until D-6/3/1 months or until the autopsy between the US and the UK.
The UK suffers from a scary number of deaths of people who never knew they had cancer, and whose families never knew until the autopsy was complete.
As I said two days ago, Big Government doesn't need overt death panels rationing access to effective treatments if they create enough red tape between the patient and effective diagnostics. Backed up diagnostics cause disease to not be noticed until it is too late, at which point the state can provide a coldly-detached rationale for not spending any money, despite the fact that the lack of a timely diagnosis was the fault of government.
Unavailable diagnostics also place limits on how aggressive doctors can be. Rationed diagnostics can give doctors the stereotypical "one shot" at fixing the problem, which would work great if humanity had a magic bullet, and government were willing to pay for it.
If you want to back up transportation in a big city, you only need to cause congestion at a few key freeway exits.
Posted by: Anonymous Countermoonbat at November 19, 2009 8:17 AM
Good News from Big Daddy - He is coming back to Oceania from his summer home in Moscow for a special announcement regarding the war with East Asia and our Eurasian allies. Stay Tuned to your telescreen for further announcements.
Posted by: Winston Smith - Ministry of Truth at November 19, 2009 8:25 AM
In Obama's America, telescreen watch you!
Has America sunk to such a deep level of statist moonbattery that we may now make Russian reversal jokes without the Russia?
Posted by: Anonymous Countermoonbat at November 19, 2009 8:28 AM
Oh man their health groups sound as bad and rediculous as our own FDA
Posted by: SPURWING PLOVER at November 19, 2009 8:34 AM
The sad thing is libtards will keep saying "it won't happen here".
Posted by: Farmer Ted at November 19, 2009 9:09 AM
My Spidey Sense tells me that anybody in government WILL get this drug...They are needed!
Posted by: jukin at November 19, 2009 10:32 AM
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Posted by: Flu-Bird at November 19, 2009 12:52 PM
