Re: FDA approves $2M medicine, most expensive ever

SahmIam · ‎04-16-2010

What the heck happened to TWO+ PAGES of comments?!

@Beth-QVC I am angered that what I wrote was deleted. It was in NO WAY political. No, I'm not angered. I'm disgusted. Many here wrote heartfelt responses to those posts. Many shared excellent information as well.

And yes, please due ban me for what 1-2 weeks for questioning the asinine decision that was made to remove TWO+ PAGES of posts.

Pathetic.

Beth-QVC · ‎06-14-2015

@SahmIam

Your posts were not political; however, some were trying to turn the thread in that direction. The software removes all other posts that contain the quote of the one intended to ban. I am sorry for any inconvenience.

Beth QVC

Greeneyedlady21 · ‎01-06-2015

It's absolutely sinful

"This isn't a Wednesday night, this is New Year's Eve"

butterfly123 · ‎06-27-2013

@Marp

Thank you for your post and the hope this medication brings to children with this rare condition.

gardenman · ‎03-09-2010

If it truly cost the company making the drug billions to develop it, then I have no real issue with them making back that money. However, drug companies often price drugs based on "societal impact" and not development costs.

As a hemophiliac, I've seen it firsthand. When the first freeze-dried clotting factor reached the market it was priced high as the manufacturers said it would limit hospitalizations, thus saving much more than it cost. What they forgot to factor in was how many bleeds hemophiliacs had that had previously been treated by the old RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) method that they were now treating with the clotting factor. The average yearly cost of treating hemophilia quickly went from around thirty thousand dollars a year (including hospitalizations and treatment with cryoprecipitate) to over three hundred thousand dollars a year for factor infusions.

A genetic cure for hemophilia is now on the horizon and it's rumored to be priced at well over a million dollars. The drug companies are saying it's a fair cost as the cost of treating hemophilia these days is over a half million dollars a year. What they aren't saying is that the cost of developing the drug was largely funded by the hemophiliac community over the last fifty years. We paid to develop the drug and now they want us to pay to use the drug we paid to develop. Yeah. That's not quite fair somehow. There are billions of dollars in play however and fairness doesn't matter. With twenty thousand hemophiliacs in the US each paying a million plus, the drug companies are very happy.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!

Financialgrl · ‎03-13-2010

@Ms tyrion2 wrote:
@Ruby Laine wrote:
There are several drug assistance programs to which patients can apply. Many drugs can be supplied at no cost to the patient. The physician should know which programs can help most for a certain med.

Even when drugs are FDA approved, they might still be involved in clinical trials which helps, too.

I have a friend who receives a fairly new drug at no cost through an assistance program. Otherwise, it would cost $75,000 each year. There’s no insurance available that would cover it.

Hopefully, this is a drug that could be covered by one of these programs.

Two of the drugs I take for cancer treatment are covered by co-pay assistance plans with the manufacturers. If I didnt get this assistance, I would not be able to afford these treatments and I would probably not be here typing this post.

@Ms tyrion2 That happened to me during treatment - the Neulasta shot the day after chemo was $785 after insurance was applied and the oncologist billing office sent me the number for copay assistance and it helped tremendously after that.

I'm presently taking Prolia shots twice a year and if it was not for the Medical Copay card where the manufacturer picks up all but $25 I'd not take it - I'd go backwards to past generation drugs with low copays (Fosamax or Boniva).