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The Value of Medicine

Icons Only Us Health
Over the next decade, the U.S. will spend
$13.5T
on hospital care
Icons Only Cancer
Since 1991, the cancer death rate in the U.S. has fallen nearly
22%

Since 2000, biopharmaceutical companies have brought more than 500 new medicines to patients in the U.S. As a result, we have successfully improved the quality and length of life for Americans confronting the most costly and challenging diseases (cancer, diabetes, etc.).

Yet, spending on retail prescription medicines accounts for the same percentage of health care spending today as in 1960 - just 10 percent. Government actuaries project that spending on prescription medicines will continue to grow at a rate that is consistent with overall health care spending through the next decade while the U.S. will spend $13.5 trillion on hospital care.

That is three times more than the spending on medicines.

OVER 500 Medicines Created in 15 Years

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Resulting in Longer and Healthier Lives

Innovative medicines help patients live longer and healthier lives. In many cases, research and medicines from the biopharmaceutical sector are the only chance for survival for many patients.

• Medicines have helped raise average U.S. life expectancy from 47 years in 1900 to 78 years.

• Since its peak in 1991, the cancer death rate in the U.S.  has fallen nearly 22 percent.

• Today, a range of treatment options are available to
   hepatitis C patients offering cure rates upwards of
   90 percent, with few side effects, in as few as 8 weeks.

• Since the introduction of highly active antiretroviral
   treatment (HAART) in 1995, the HIV AIDS death rate has
   dropped nearly 85 percent.

Decreasing Expensive Hospital Visits & Emergency Room Visits

Medicines can shift the treatment paradigm toward prevention by allowing patients to avoid expensive hospitalizations and emergency room visits. According to an analysis, the U.S. health care system could save $213 billion annually if medicines were used properly. And every additional dollar spent on medicines for adherent patients with congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol generated $3 to $10 in savings on emergency room visits and inpatient hospitalizations.

Medicines can also reduce the projected impact of diseases. In the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, new medicines approved by 2025 that delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by five years would reduce the number of people with the disease by approximately 40 percent and avoid $367 billion annually in long-term care and other health care costs by 2050.

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Learn More

You can learn more about the value of medicine by exploring the issue lab on the We Work For Health website.

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