Pharmaceutical Company Raises Drug Price from $10 to $1,500 Per Dose

According to The Washington Post, last Friday the FDA—just days after you started contacting them in protest over their pregnancy drug Makena—has reversed their stance. Keep up the pressure! As we reported last week, KV Pharmaceutical’s new orphan drug, Makena—a form of progesterone called 17P that has been in use for decades to help patients with high-risk pregnancies—has sparked outrage across the country because the price was raised from $10 per dose to $1,500, or as much as $30,000 over the course of a pregnancy. Each insurance company and state Medicaid program must decide whether to cover the drug. But even women whose insurance will pay for it could face thousands in out-of-pocket costs to satisfy co-payments and deductibles.

So this drug has been around for a long time, but this company snatched up exclusive rights for 7 years. Right after that, the price shot through the roof. Disgusting example of profiting on people's fears. Luckily the FDA actually did something when people began contacting them. The stuff is still pretty expensive unfortunately.

Link

reply to post by Domo1


I am a healthcare worker, this seems like a case of price gouging if any. I understand that it takes lots of research, but if it was initially 10 dollars why the need to make it 1500? Hell has plenty of space from what I hear.

The connection with birthing rates is interesting. It is possible we have so departed the natural line that without aids natural birth is truly a life and death experience thus, any reduction of any aid would assist in reduction of the number of people.

On a lighter note, it is always nice to see people power affect the system.

Republicans constantly blab about lessening regulations and whatnot, but can one imagine if the FDA hadn't stepped in to stop this?

Without important REGULATIONS holding corporations in-check, stuff like that would happen everyday. The Republicans couldnt care less as they have ONLY the corporations and the extremely wealthy folks' interests in mind.

This would be BAD had it been allowed. We The PEOPLE have been BURDENED enough already!!!!!

Republicans COULDNT CARE LESS if people had to spend $1500 per dose of their medication!!!

...because the profits will somehow 'trickle-down' back to us of course...

Waiting on people to start talking about how that's capitalism and they have a right to make a profit

Because, you see, price gouging is perfectly okay. And raping consumers to increase the profit margins is to be applauded. Oh, and "you're just jealous you didn't think of it".

As usual, the headline is not quite accurate, so hold your anti=Republican horses until you get some more facts. That's not too hard, is it? The fact is that this drug can be made by compunding pharmacies for $10-$15.00 a shot (It's an injection, not a pill.) They have been making this generic equivalent for some time.

They still can.

"Makena," the drug in question, is made by KV Pharmeceuticals and, indeed, they want to charge $1500. However:

After getting the approval, KV sent a letter to compounding pharmacies telling them that the FDA would enforce the company's exclusive right to make the drug.


"This is not correct," the FDA said today.


"In order to support access to this important drug, at this time and under this unique situation, FDA does not intend to take enforcement action against pharmacies that compound hydroxyprogesterone caproate based on a valid prescription for an individually identified patient unless the compounded products are unsafe, of substandard quality, or are not being compounded in accordance with appropriate standards for compounding sterile products," the FDA announced.

The FDA noted that KV's approval for Makena was based on research funded by the federal government.

The FDA approval -- under the Orphan Drug Act -- granted KV the exclusive right to sell Makena for seven years. The intent of the law is to give manufacturers a financial incentive to make important drugs for which there is only a small market.

For years, compounding pharmacies have made their own versions of synthetic progestin, commonly under the generic name 17P. Because it is a sterile injectable drug, the FDA felt that an approved product, made under FDA guidelines, would provide "greater assurance of safety."

On March 8, KV announced that it had launched a patient assistance program to make Makena available to women who cannot afford the drug:
Uninsured women with annual household incomes under $60,000 would get the drug at no cost.
Uninsured women with annual household incomes of $60,00 to $100,000 would get the drug at a cost comparable to the average copay assigned by insurance companies.
Insured women with annual household incomes up to $100,000 who apply for assistance will get Makena at a copay cost of $20 or less per injection.

The entire article is here and, by the way, this all happened nearly a year ago, last March.

This is a great example of why capitalism won't work in this country, the way its presently constructed. It's capitalism at all costs. Life apparently means little, if anything.

If you have enough money, you can pay off the FDA to approve your product.

It happens all the time, just look at all the attorney ads on TV, The ones asking if you had recently used "this product" and now have serious side affects. Many of these products are FDA approved and/or have been recently developed. Only when enough people get side affects do the FDA remove the product from US shelves, only for it to end up on foreign shelve markets.

There was a post on ATS that talked of how the FDA was being paid off to allow test drugs on the market, and of course many people got horrible side affects and the pharmacy got really really rich and was given a parking ticket size fee.

Also if there are any "real" drugs out there that do indeed cure people, the FDA usually stops or bans the product from ever being made. Look up the new documentary on the cancer drug that can cure all cancers. FDA did everything that they could to prevent this drug from coming out but they finally lost after years of trying. Had they not done so, everyone lost to cancer in the last 10 years would still be around.

Thanks FDA for being uberly corrupt!!!

reply to post by Domo1


And this is where the crimes against humanity begins, it is very easy for these companies to jack up the price when they know people need these drugs desperately. I am a medical student and I can tell you that a lot of these pharmaceutical and insurance companies are toying around with the American people, and it is sad that we let them get away with these things. It is horrible.

Capitalism is NOT the issue. The issue is with the FDA and Congress.

The drug was being made cheaply in small quantities by pharmacists. The FDA decided it would be 'better' to have a pharmaceutical company make it. The costs to the pharmaceutical company are far, far greater than to the individual pharmacies, and the FDA granted a monopoly to the pharmaceutical company to encourage them to make it.

By essentially removing the drug from the free market, the FDA has encouraged the huge price increase associated with this drug.

This is NOT a failure of capitalism, it is a failure of government.

reply to post by Domo1


It's called depopulation

That is how big pharma tests its products
They want to save even more money (make even more money), so they do not do proper testing for a certain drug. You know those late nite pharma commercials for all these diseases? Yeah, that is their version of 'testing'

They offer you a 'free trial'
And since you 'took a free trial under your own free will', the company that supplied you with said untested drug is not liable. Thats how they get you.

Its sad really, there are much more incredible plants on this earth that have the same properties as these drugs being produced by a 'for profit' industry. As you can tell, Even if this one isn't `1500, there are thousands out there that people need in order to be comfortable and not in pain.

How does someone afford multiple thousands in medication for a disease? And no insurance? And even if you do have insurance, its still expensive as hell!

If i ever have a disease that requires me to take thousands of dollars in medication each and every day, im just going to play in traffic and get hit or something.
I hear tell of many families going bankrupt to help whomever with medication to merely stay 'alive'

Being 'alive' is just a debt these days, no one is alive when you life is dictated to you.

And remember folks. Its the fact that we have been apathetic to the world for so long. Most people do not care that the biggest industries in the west, are also the ones killing us for profit.

We eat crappy GMO food that has been proven to be bad, and this stuff is everywhere. It doesn't matter that its bad because they have paid off everything that would be able to fight them in government. So the gmo foods with pesticides and other chemicals, ontop of water with trace amounts of 20 or more chemicals (like flouride and mercury), then we have flu shots and other sorts of shots that also contain mercury in them (as we all know, mercury makes you apathetic/dumb/kills you eventually). And then we turn to the pharmaceutical industry to help us?

Your kidding? You mean they MAY HAVE PLANNED this from the very beginning?
"Hey, lets make EVERYONE SICK so we can make a tonne of money of them via the food we provide, and the drugs we provide" The sicker you are. The more you are worth to big pharma.

This world is the best form of birth control.

If you look at animals in the wild, most of their young perish in the first couple years.

They can afford to crap out babies one after the other with no need for contraception.

Originally posted by jonnywhite
This world is the best form of birth control.

If you look at animals in the wild, most of their young perish in the first couple years.

They can afford to crap out babies one after the other with no need for contraception.

edit on 19-12-2011 by jonnywhite because: (no reason given)

Happens to humans too,
The birth death rate is climbing every year.

This story reminds me of the airline company that increased the price of their tickets by 600% because the competition was gone.

reply to post by Basilisk


That's what I thought of when I first read it too.

Originally posted by HangTheTraitors
Republicans constantly blab about lessening regulations and whatnot, but can one imagine if the FDA hadn't stepped in to stop this?

Without important REGULATIONS holding corporations in-check, stuff like that would happen everyday. The Republicans couldnt care less as they have ONLY the corporations and the extremely wealthy folks' interests in mind.

This would be BAD had it been allowed. We The PEOPLE have been BURDENED enough already!!!!!

Republicans COULDNT CARE LESS if people had to spend $1500 per dose of their medication!!!

...because the profits will somehow 'trickle-down' back to us of course...

edit on 18-12-2011 by HangTheTraitors because: (no reason given)

The regulations and socialist policies you worship are precisely why this drug is so expensive. Command and control economies always create shortages and shortages jack up prices. If the government hadn't created a monopoly for the benefit of their masters, big-pharma, compounding pharmacists would still be offering it at $10 a dose. Please note over and over again that the scarcity would not have occurred without the government interference. In a real capitalist society there would be many competitors offering the same product and prices would go down. The elites love useful idiots like you. Your false uninformed beliefs help to perpetuate and strengthen their power.

reply to post by Microbiologist

Capitalism is NOT the issue. The issue is with the FDA and Congress.

I would tend to agree.