Subscribing to the so-called Netflix model for purchasing hepatitis C treatments is projected to lower patient costs by approximately 85 percent in Australia, where the government is working its way through a five-year deal in which several drug makers were paid a lump sum of $766 million for the medicines, according to an analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Under emerging Netflix models — which vary — states or countries agree to pay a fixed amount of money to receive unlimited treatments of a drug for a patient population.
In Australia, where the government signed a deal in 2015 with four different pharmaceutical companies, the cost to treat each patient is expected to total $7,352 by the time the agreement is completed. This compares with the roughly $55,000 that the Australian government otherwise anticipated spending under traditional purchasing agreements.
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