What does Hospiras clock track?
Hospira’s clock tracks U.S. spending for biologic drugs – large-protein molecules derived from genetically modified cell lines. Some biologic drugs now on the U.S. market can cost more than $100,000 a year per patient1. According to IMS Health, the world’s leading provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, global spending on biologics in 2007 totaled more than $75 billion, with 56 percent of sales2, or roughly $42 billion, occurring in the United States. At this rate, U.S. patients, their families, private health insurance providers and the government are paying more than $115 million every day – $1,331 every second – for these drugs. Hospira’s clock tracks this spending, using the 2007 data, to provide a rough approximation of how much money the United States has spent so far this year alone on biologic drugs. The clock is updated by the second. 1 Pollack, Andrew. “Genentech Caps Cost of Cancer Drug for Some Patients.” The New York Times 12 Oct. 2
