FDA, KV Pharma Bend A Bit To Public Pressure; Lower Makena Costs, Allow Competing Drugs To Remain... For Now
from the public-pressure-works dept
We've been discussing how the FDA has been systematically banning drugs that have been on the market for years, and retroactively granting monopolies to particular pharmaceutical firms. The case that's drawn the most attention is that of Makena, a drug to prevent early childbirth which is provided on the market by a bunch of different firms, and was competitively priced around $10/dose. Yet, after the FDA stepped in and gave a monopoly to KV Pharmaceutical under the economically-clueless belief that this would help make the drug "more available," there was a massive public backlash when people discovered KV would increase the price of the drug from $10 to $1,500.In response, it appears the FDA is backing down ever so slightly. Drew points us to the news that it has put out a statement that it will not stop other pharmacies from making and offering the drug. KV had been threatening others, but the FDA stepped in and said that, even though it's granted this monopoly to KV, it wouldn't enforce it against these other manufacturers. The FDA put up a statement explaining this:
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.Of course, it also says it may change its mind on this at any time (i.e., after the attention and backlash die down) and appears to have no interest in revisiting its other new monopolies.
Not surprisingly, with this news in place, KV Pharmaceutical has also announced that it is dropping the $1,500 price down to $690. Of course, that's still a lot more than $10 per dose, and this seems in response to the fact that (a) the public is blasting it at every turn and (b) the FDA won't really enforce the monopoly... for now.
How about we try to fix the underlying problem of monopolies, rather than just focusing on this one case?
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Filed Under: drugs, fda, makena, monopolies, pharma
Companies: kv pharmaceutical
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This sort of April Fools joke...
Almost starts to get your hopes up until one realizes what day it is.
:-(
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What a deal.
Quick! Go get some while it's still at kidney-hocking prices!
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This is sick
Develop? Does this mean marketing, or kickbacks to the FDA?
"Because the drug must be given for about 20 weeks, Makena would cost about $30,000 for each at-risk pregnancy, which could add more than $4 billion to the nation’s health-care bill."
Oh, goody. We aren't spending enough on health-care as it is.
"KV’s stock price fell more than 20 percent Wednesday."
Lovely to know that so many investors would be looking to benefit from overpricing drugs used to help babies. They didn't dump the stock until after they fould out the FDA wouldn't go after other producers. Nice.
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Re: This is sick
The $200 million could have been the cost of setting up the required facility to mass produce the drug. That does sound steep, but hey, my knowledge of drug manufacturing is very limited.
I hope that the stock dropped because people finally realized what douches the managed were.
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Re: This is sick
They did not develop the generic version. But they did develop their own branded version. Don’t you think they should be entitled to a fair return on their precious Intellectual Property investment, and protection against those who would rip off their hard work?
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Re: Re: This is sick
Tell me again how that is is developing a new thing? In fact if they didn't develop the drug in the first place then how could they possible be allowed a patent for their "Intellectual Property when in fact someone else created it?
Disclaimer: I'm not sure who actually came up with the drug but the wording in your comment suggests that another company originally created the drug.
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Re: Re: This is sick
By fair return you were thinking monopoly gouging. Have a very wealthy group sitting on too much money with not enough return for their greed get monopoly control to exact on society the absolute highest price possible.
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Re: This is sick
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Re: Re: This is sick
That will teach those dirty 'mothers' a lesson now, won't it? (and I'm not talking about the ones having the babies here).
1. Mandate health-care for all (subsidized by the government of course)
2. Grant monopolies to drug manufacturers so they can inflate prices 1000%
3. Kill babies.... by restricting use due to excessive cost to only government subsidized births
4. Profit... for the drug companies, and the senators and congress men they bought
Sounds like a plan, I'm sure I have a patent on this business model somewhere, or I can submarine one in there pretty quickly.... lets get some lawyers and get to suing, it's the American way after all right?
When did as American as Mom, Apple Pie, and Baseball become...
As American as Monopolies, Malfeasance and Litigation?
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Nice short-term solution. Now please come up with a long-term one.
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rinse, lather, repeat?
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Do the rich people understand if they manage to kill the rest of us off, they will have to mow their own lawns?
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The best thing IP maximists can do to maintain their laws is to make those laws more reasonable.
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Is that not what he said there?
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That is what I understood anyways.
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Re: Re:
http://consumerist.com/2011/04/colchicine-a-drug-primarily-used.html
"Hello, I have a major complaint about the doctor-prescribed medicine Colchicine. I am a 22 year old male in generally good health, however I was diagnosed three years ago with a medical condition known as Pericarditis, which is an inflammation of the sack around my heart. When this condition flares up I am tremendous pain and usually have to be admitted to the hospital. The only thing that helps me is the prescription drug Colchicine which I have to take twice a day, every day, for potentially the rest of my life as there is no cure for my type of Pericarditis outside of having my rib-cage cracked open and getting a bunch of junk scraped out. "
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Mind you this is what I gathered, I might be misinformed but it sounds about right given how KV got their deal.
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The person in question has pericardia (sp) disease, and the gout medication keeps the inflammation down and him out of the hospital.
A drug manufacturer did some tests to get a 3yr exclusive on a drug that has been around for years. They jacked the price up and even with his insurance it is getting to where he can not afford it.
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crony capitalism
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Re: crony capitalism
The biggest problem is in the signal to noise ratio of the interwebs, "HE"S A KEYAN!" "GREEDO SHORT FIRST!" etc. stories like this get very little coverage.
Our congress critters make multiple times more than the people they are supposed to "represent". Instead the align themselves with people who fill their campaign coffers and give them "special" treats.
The American people become to focused on the hot button issues that are spoon-fed to them to worry about.
As an example the "tea-party" faithful with their signs screaming no socialism while they collect their disability or medicare checks.
The bible-belt faithful screaming about the murder of the unborn, while making sure no money can be spent to educate kids to avoid the problem. Abstinence only works on paper, but instead they refuse to fund stopping the problem, they fear funding the murder of children, and they try very hard to avoid supporting all of these children who end up in the system.
The liberals who scream about the violation of the public's rights, but meanwhile rubberstamp the TSA policies that do nothing but move us closer to a police state.
There is plenty of blame to go around, but until the people stop voting for the "guy" with the best slogan and demand accountability we will get more of the same.
Corporations exist to make money.
Government is supposed to make the rules to make sure they do not make money at the expense of people.
The problem is we give lip service to demand better but we refuse to vote out the source of the problem because then we might not get control over the "important" issues.
Only when you discover that your local Evil Corporation has poisoned your drinking water, and they are going to do nothing to clean it up.
Then it does not seem to matter that much that someone who doesn't share your faith might consider an abortion to save her life across the country.
We have a "representative government" if this is how they represent us we must be insane.
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Colchicine
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