Ending “Buy-And-Bill” in Oncology: The Question is How, Not If

24 Oct 2012

• By Michael McCaughan

The public policy debate over affordability of cancer care is approaching consensus on the need to end the “buy-and-bill” model for chemotherapy. How, and how fast, are the key remaining questions. For biopharma manufacturers, there are good reasons to embrace the change.

“We are at a moment where the cancer community is ready to change,” University of Pennsylvania’s Ezekiel Emanuel declared at the end of a two day National Cancer Policy Forum workshop on “Delivering Affordable Cancer Care.”

“We need to tell them how to change and lead that change,” Emanuel said October 9. “Otherwise I think…we are...