Why are anticoagulant medicines so economically significant? Why are drug companies coming up with new so called novel anti-coagulants?
Because many people get treated every year in the U.S. for blood clots. And although the medicine to prevent blood clots them can be expensive, it is also very expensive to treat blood clots that already exist. And obviously, this is not even measuring the grievous human toll from sickness, disability and death caused by blood clots....and the heart attacks and strokes caused by them. Read a previous post here which discusses that toll. And read another website post here which discusses some of the risk factors and statistics related to blood clots.
In an April 2009 article published by the American Journal for Preventive Medicine linked to here, it is estimated that annually there are 300,000-600,000 new incidences of Venous thromboembolism (VTE) (colloquially referred to as blood clots). It is also estimated that the cost to the U.S. medical system at that time was ranges from $7594 to $16,644 per patient per incident. That translates to an annual cost at that time in the range of 2-10 billion USD.
Obviously, the more blood clots prevented results in savings in medical expenditures....oh, yeah...and it results in more people remaining healthier and alive.
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