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Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
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13 Jul, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Hmmm… Drug companies develop meds to keep people out of hospitals, go out of their way to offer patients copay assistance, & get vilified & sued for it. By contrast, hospitals hound patients mercilessly for last $. How will Congress prioritize? @NPLB_org axios.com/hospital-billi…
If you want some tips on how to deal with predatory hospital billing, check out articles on nopatientpeftbehind.org. There is advice on who to call, what to say, what not to sign, etc. And sadly lots of people who have been left behind. We’re working on solutions. @NPLB_org
And if that axios link didn’t work for you. Lots of related articles on hospital predatory billing. axios.com/hospitals-pati…
Apologies for typo on NPLB link. Here is right one. nopatientleftbehind.org

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More from @PeterKolchinsky

Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
11 Jul
Money laundering. Hospitals & clinics buy drugs at lower prices from drug company but sell them to patients/insurance at much higher prices, keeping difference to pay own costs (instead of directly charging more for their services). nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-he…
This is essentially money laundering. The public gets the impression that the clinic/hospital costs are lower & that drugs are much higher. The trouble is that eventually such drugs go generic, ending the scam.
Clinics that have been marking up HIV drugs for years are now shutting down as those drugs go generic. They would have to charge full price for their services to stay open but seems insurance won’t pay those rates.
Read 13 tweets
Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
16 Jun
If best of biopharma industry were incarnated, would be as my friend Paul Hastings @phastings14, CEO of Nkarta, now Chair of BIO @IAmBiotech, & a good soul. Here’s his story & call for reforms: Lower OOP & make drugs go generic w/o undue delays. @NPLB_org vimeo.com/octo8er/review…
What Paul speaks to is very much aligned with the reforms supported by No Patient Left Behind (nopatientleftbehind.org), an organization I helped start and of which Paul is a personal supporter (see Life Science Builder page), as my firm and I support BIO. 2/8
Paul’s comments will make rent-seekers in our industry uncomfortable (companies that have gotten good at milking old drugs for high profits as if they still merit more reward for having been recently invented). Still, I know many within those companies who agree with Paul. 3/8
Read 8 tweets
Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
7 May
Some think patents stand in way of making more vaccines. They don’t. Skill & money do. Just as most of us couldn’t replicate Mona Lisa (no IP there), few can make advanced vaccines. Vaccine companies have already partnered w/ all skilled producers they could find to make doses.
The reason they have already liberally partnered is b/c incentives were there to do so & competition among companies spurred them to get to market first. All those big contracts offered enough reward that innovators shared their knowledge & reward w/ manufacturing partners.
Anyone who didn’t partner with others to expand manufacturing knew that other companies would to sell more doses first, shrinking market for others (especially since wasn’t always evident there would be a long term booster market for laggards).
Read 18 tweets
Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
26 Apr
This Nature paper makes strong case that any COVID, not just serious disease & hospitalization, jacks up risk of many health problems for many months thereafter (long COVID). What’s it mean for vaccines? Durably high protection matters, & boosters. nature.com/articles/s4158…
More specifically, it means that when you hear about vaccines that protect by 70% but claim “yeah, but protects 100% against severe diseases”, know that the 30% residual risk of getting even mild-moderate COVID comes with more risk than we thought. It’s risk worth avoiding.
So right now, get whatever vaccine you can. mRNA seems better than adenoviral and inactivated vaccines. Get booster when offered, both to protect against new variants & old ones, b/c immunity wanes.
Read 14 tweets
Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
28 Mar
Do patient groups perceive drug price controls (HR3) will end progress in treatment of many diseases? Cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s... done. HR3 not benign. Price controls always kill investment in risky R&D. No “alternative” economics on that point. timmermanreport.com/2021/03/a-glim…
Some patient advocacy groups I’ve spoken with say “we don’t want to be seen defending drug industry”. And yet, as w/COVID, that’s who develops the treatments- that’s where hope comes from. What’s the point of having standing and pathos if you won’t use it to defend what’s right?
Some say “no, NIH invents drugs.”. They misunderstand. NIH builds foundation but not the product. It makes prototypes at best. But it’s takes the $160B of R&D each year to bring ~50 drugs/year to market... to patients. nopatientleftbehind.docsend.com/view/mxht62ee3…
Read 11 tweets
Peter Kolchinsky Profile picture
28 Mar
Everything wrong w/ healthcare & drug pricing debate is evident in these slide. Healthcare costs in Massachusetts grew at 4.3% (slide 32). On 33, they report drug spending grew 7.2% gross of rebates. On 34, they show it’s only 3% growth net of rebates. mass.gov/doc/presentati…
Conclusion on slide 55 blames drug prices for Medicare spending growth, yet in footnote acknowledge its “not net of rebates”. Well why not? They clear know net drug spending growth is lower than almost every other aspect of healthcare. It’s clearly hospitals driving growth.
They talk about hospitals, but highlighting drugs is willful misdirection. As for patients’ costs, slide 42 & 47 shows shift towards higher out of pocket costs. So even as drug spending shrinks as a fraction of healthcare spending, Americans afford less & blaming drug costs.
Read 8 tweets

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