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Rx Drugs Cost Americans $374B Last Year

UNHEALTHY

Hep C cure costs $80,000.

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REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

U.S. spending on prescription drugs jumped 13 percent last year to a total of $374 billion because of a huge increase in the number of Americans who have health insurance. “It was the largest dollar growth in a single year we’ve ever measured,” said IMS Health’s Michael Kleinrock. That spending is in part due to an absurdly expensive Hepatitis C drug marketed by Gilead: The breakthrough cure costs $80,000 per patient.

Read it at Los Angeles Times

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