A new study by the nonprofit research group RAND concludes that the high costs of breakthrough technologies like new cancer drugs, more efficient pacemakers and new treatments for Alzheimer's could end up putting serious pressure on Medicare and programs like it. Researchers examined the future cost of 10 new technologies and found that costs are likely to be extremely high. The team concluded, for example, that anti-angiogenesis drugs which fight cancer by intelligently attacking tumors could end up costing as much as $638,000 per patient life-year added. The real question, of course, may be what the price tag for an individual human life should be.
- read this story from the Boston Globe
- see this detailed abstract from RAND
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