With the rising costs of medications and drugs, the regulation of the costs increase is essential. It is especially relevant in the context of the emerging concerns about health equity across different populations. At present, the economics-driven world is characterized by putting a price tag on human health and life, which seems to be unavoidable. In particular, such organizations as ICER and NICE conduct research and price analysis to justify the costs of particular drugs. Such an approach does not enhance health equity, although it allows for structuring the limits of price growth.
The price limits for drugs are calculated based on the number of years and the quality of life added to a patient’s existence due to the use of medication. Indeed, these two factors, namely the quality of life and length of life, form a quality-adjusted life year (QALY). It helps to tie the monetary value of human life to the prices of drugs people might use to treat their diseases. On the one hand, such an approach to calculating drug prices is effective in determining the lowest prices possible. However, these metrics have their disadvantages since the life and death decisions depend on the politicians and organizational decision-makers.
Indeed, with the dependence of drug prices on economic calculations of the subjective worth of human life, the opportunities for obtaining cures are limited for people with low-income levels. Since QALYs predetermine the availability of a certain drug in a particular country, it is non-ethical to implement such a metric to calculate human life’s monetary value. Thus, despite being an effective price-controlling tool, it is not a perfect solution to the health equity problem.