Last week, the Food and Drug Administration announced that a drug previously not officially available to patients in the United States had been approved. Deflazacort, a corticosteroid, has been shown to be useful and life-prolonging for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare and fatal disease. Its U.S. launch has been delayed, however, after lawmakers questioned the dramatic price hike that came with its debut here.
How much of a price increase? That depends on who you ask. The drug will be marketed under the name Emflaza, and its sticker price will be $89,000 for a year’s worth of pills. The CEO of Marathon Pharmaceuticals, the company marketing the drug, said that the typical cost per patient after discounts and insurance rebates would be $54,000 per year.
The Wall Street Journal reports that families currently pay an average of $1,200 to import deflazacort from countries where it’s available. The price varies: One mother reports paying $800 to $1,000, and other families pay up to $1,600.
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That's despicable. There's the free market, and then there's gouging. I hope the new health care reforms allow for purchasing pharmaceuticals from overseas as well as negotiating their price for insurance reimbursements.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the things that needs to be fixed at the presidential level.
ReplyDelete