The silliest editorial I read in any medical journal in 2013 was entitled "The Just Price of Cancer Drugs and the Growing Cost of Cancer Care: Oncologists Need to Be Part of the Solution". This article was published in the October 01, 2013 edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. In this essay the author, David Pfister, applauds the self-professed goal of other physicians "to identify Justum Pretium - the Just Price" of oncology drugs. The other physicians that Dr. Pfister supports include Hagop Kantargian, Tito Fojo, Michael Mathisen, and Leonard Zwelling, who penned the silliest special article I perused in any medical journal in 2013. Their article was entitled "Cancer Drugs in the United States: Justum Pretium - The Just Price". This article was also published in the October 01, 2013 edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. In their article, Kantargian et al bizarrely "propose a value-based system for setting the initial price" of all new oncology drugs.
Pfister and Kantargian et al do not understand that the value of an oncology drug to an individual patient cannot be objectively measured because such value is subjective. They also do not understand that the price (the money price) of a good in a free market is an objective measure of market exchange value. And, finally, they do not understand that the "just" price concept was refuted by economists several hundred years ago.
In the words of the illustrious Mr. T, I pity these fools.
Pfister and Kantargian et al do not understand that the value of an oncology drug to an individual patient cannot be objectively measured because such value is subjective. They also do not understand that the price (the money price) of a good in a free market is an objective measure of market exchange value. And, finally, they do not understand that the "just" price concept was refuted by economists several hundred years ago.
In the words of the illustrious Mr. T, I pity these fools.
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