Doctors Tried To Lower $148K Cancer Drug Cost; Makers Tripled Its Price (arstechnica.com)

Slashdot reader Applehu Akbar writes: Imbruvica, a compound that treats white blood cell cancers, has until now been a bargain at $148,000 per year. Until now, doctors have been able to optimize dosage for each patient by prescribing up to four small-dose pills of it per day.

But after results from a recent small pilot trial indicated that smaller doses would for most patients work as well as the large ones, its manufacturer, Janssen and Pharmacyclics, has decided on the basis of the doctors' interest in smaller dosages to reprice all sizes of the drug to the price of the largest size. This has the effect of tripling the price for patients, and doctors have now put off any plans for further testing of lower dosages.
The researchers are retaliating by urging clinical investigators to test whether the expensive pill could be safely given every other day -- and by calling on America's public health regulators to investigate the drug's pricing.

Comments

Crimes against humanity

[Anonymous Coward]

Hang them

Re:Crimes against humanity

[MidnightBrewer]

We already fund up to 80% of pharmaceutical R&D through our taxes. You forget that the pharmaceutical lobby is the most powerful one in Washington. It's a rigged system and we pay the price. Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.

I live in Japan, where the government is allowed to negotiate prices and can declare certain things (such as MRIs) benefits to the common good and therefore mandate that they be made cheaply available. Finally, drug patents only last for three years. One of the reasons the TPP would be bad news for the other countries: the US wants everyone to extend the patents to 12.

And when true drug price controls...

[GerryGilmore]

...come into effect, expect wailing, moaning and cries of "How could it have come to this?!?". Well, dumb-asses, you just HAD to grab that extra dollar just because you could, right? Payback will be a bitch if we ever wake up in this country.

Public interest

[RyanFenton]

Lots of folks here are allergic to the idea of the public interest having any role in public policy. I understand where you're coming from - "if it isn't helping me now..."

But here's the thing - properly funding public research is WAY cheaper than these ruthless extortion tactics we've turned healthcare into for the past few decades.

I mean, it's crazy cheaper to prioritize a working public healthcare, and yes, research programs.

As in, most of the rest of the world would consider how we run things a complete joke.

But somehow, because it involves some sort of public interest at play... it's somehow seen as a threat(?)

But somehow, these stories after stories of business people deciding to extort folks, with such calculated corporate smiles on their faces are seen as not a threat.

Which is rather odd - those same folks would see Andy Griffith as a misty memory ideal don't see how basically that's exactly the kind of cruel selfishness personified that he ranted at in half of the episodes of his show.

It's just so bizarre to see what passes for debate and morality in discussions on Slashdot these days.

Ryan Fenton

This is the economic system...

[VeryFluffyBunny]

...that so many Americans identify with and defend patriotically and decry anything else as Socialism/Communism/government overreach. This is the free market and minimal regulation at work, doing what it's supposed to do, regardless of anything except profits and share prices, and you vote for it like true patriots every few years.

Re:This is what I don't understand.

[Swave An deBwoner]

Check the bolded portion below:

In the United States, as of 2015, with Turing Pharmaceuticals' acquisition of the US marketing rights for Daraprim tablets,[25] Daraprim has become a single-source and specialty pharmacy item, and the price of Daraprim has been increased.[26] The cost of a monthly course for a person on 75 mg dose rose to about $75,000/month, or $750 per tablet.[27][28] Outpatients can no longer obtain Daraprim from their community pharmacy, but only through a single dispensing pharmacy, Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy, and institutions can no longer order from their general wholesaler, but have to set up an account with the Daraprim Direct program.[26][29] Presentations from Retrophin, a company formerly headed by Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing, from which Turing acquired the rights to Daraprim, suggest that a closed distribution system could prevent generic competitors from legally obtaining the drugs for the bioequivalence studies required for FDA approval of a generic drug.[29]

Re: This is what I don't understand.

[dmr001]

Most drugs have a bunch of patents, including ones for the active ingredient, the delivery mechanism, the coating, etc. The patents will have staggered expiration dates, which can maximize the time a drug remains on patent. Albuterol inhalers, for example, which used to be generic until they were reformulated to be ozone safe, has 4 US patents for one particular formulation (ProAir). That helps keep this 40 year old drug at $57-$70 an inhaler. Somehow, back when it was generic, it was $4 an inhaler. Albuterol was supposed to be going generic again any minute now for the past 2-3 years, but it's still hung up in court —all for a drug that probably ought to be over-the-counter. IMHO.