From Futurism · Joe Wilkins · · 1m 30s
Americans are flying to Shanghai for cancer care
A cutting-edge cancer therapy invented in the US now costs a third as much in China, and patients are booking flights.
In brief
A cutting-edge cancer therapy invented in the US now costs a third as much in China, and patients are booking flights. CAR-T was invented in the US, but China industrialised it, so American patients are getting on planes to afford it. Originally reported by Futurism.
Medical tourism, again
Americans have long left the richest country on Earth to afford care, heading to Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada, Turkey and Thailand. Shanghai is the newest stop.
The treatment in question
CAR-T therapy re-engineers a patient's own white blood cells to hunt down proteins on cancer cells. It is personalised immunotherapy, built one patient at a time.
Invented here, scaled there
US biotech giants developed CAR-T, then could not or would not bring the price down or make enough of it. Shortages spread across the country.
A third of the price
In China the therapy runs about $150,000 to $230,000. In the US it is $550,000 to $850,000. One bill is life-altering, the other is impossible.
“China has basically done to CAR-T cell therapy the same thing that it's done to other industries, which is, they've industrialized it.”
Doctors are saying go
Sairah Ahmed, who runs the CAR-T program at MD Anderson in Houston, tells some of her patients to seek treatment in China. Labs near Shanghai turn it around in days, not the three-plus weeks US labs need.
Not a miracle cure
CAR-T only works on some cancers and usually comes after other treatments fail. Recovery takes months of checkups with physical, neurological and psychological specialists.
What it means
CAR-T was invented in the US, but China industrialised it, so American patients are getting on planes to afford it.
