How Do Innovative Medicines Save Lives?


Transforming How We Treat and Cure Diseases

We support true transparency, which means working together to provide patients access to affordable medicines.

While a few bad actors make headlines, millions of people here in Colorado and around the world benefit from life-saving prescription drugs. Almost everyone has a story:

  • An uncle or aunt with heart disease
  • A friend with cancer that’s fully in remission
  • A relative living a healthy life with HIV or AIDS

In the past, one of these diagnoses could equal a death sentence. Thanks to innovative medicines, fewer people lose their lives to these serious conditions. Think of:

  • The aunt or uncle with heart disease. Did you know heart disease deaths decreased by a third in a nine-year period, from 2001-2010?
  • The friend with cancer. Death rates from cancer have dropped by 22% since 1991.
  • The family member with HIV/AIDS. The number of people dying from HIV/AIDS decreased by 85% since 1995.


Biopharmaceutical innovations help friends and family members live longer and healthier lives and save millions of people from early deaths each year.

These medicines not only transform how we treat and cure diseases, they also deliver significant cost savings to the health care system. That’s because innovative medicines lead to fewer physician visits, hospitalizations, surgeries and other preventable procedures.

This translates to lower health care costs for everyone. The reduction in cancer deaths equals $2 trillion in savings, and the drop in lives lost to HIV/AIDS saves the system $1.2 trillion.

Here in Colorado, UCHealth Cancer Center delivers promising outcomes for cancer patients. The center is recognized as having one of the world’s best lung cancer treatment programs. Five-year survival rates for cancers of the lung and liver are well above the national average.

It’s time to look at the cost savings innovative medicines provide. That means examining at the health care system as a whole, working together to bring down prescription drug prices. Singling out one stakeholder in a complex system won’t provide cost savings for patients.

Categories: CBSA News