New Cancer Drug Access at Risk in Oregon Medicaid Proposal

An Oregon proposal to exclude expensive drugs that received FDA fast-track approval from Medicaid coverage is alarming advocates for patients with cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

If approved, the proposal could limit access in Medicaid to promising treatments for patients with deadly conditions, and could encourage other states to similarly attempt to restrict access to get relief from rising drug costs, advocates say.

At issue are drugs approved under the Food and Drug Administration’s accelerated approval pathway, which emerged in the 1990s during the AIDS crisis as a way of speeding access to medications for patients with serious conditions and ...