A team of 118 top cancer doctors, recently published an article and started a campaign calling on big pharmaceutical companies to lower the price of cancer treatment medications. According to these professionals, the huge costs of the medications are only attributable to the desire of corporations to make as much money as possible.

The head author of the paper, Dr. Ayalew Tefferi, a hematologist from the Mayo Clinic, exposed in the research how high drugs prices affect both the patients who need them, as well as the general health care system. On average, the common household in the U.S. has an income of about $52,000 a year. Even if a family has insurance, a treatment that costs around $120,000 per year, will leave the patient with debts for as much as $25,000 to $30,000. More than half the annual income of an average American family.

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A group of top doctors file a report to complain against the high cost of cancer treatment medications to big pharmaceutical companies.

Also, in the article the doctors pointed out how the prices of cancer treatments increase every year. They estimated that the average price rising is of $8,500 annually since the year 2000.

The doctors proposed a legislation to allow Medicare to be able to directly negotiate with drug companies to lower their outrageous prices.

Surprisingly, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing Association rejected the arguments from the doctors and said that “cancer medicine represent only a fifth of total spending on cancer treatments”. They also alleged that lowering the costs of the medications will delay the development and innovation of cancer research.