Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/11/dollar-a-dose-off-patent-drug.html
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$89,000 per dose or per year? Both are outrageous, but one is flatly impossible.
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[quote=“lumbercartel, post:2, topic:94865, full:true”]
$89,000 per dose or per year? Both are outrageous, but one is flatly impossible.
[/quote]Not if it’s one dose per year.
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So, how many patients are going to feel so charitable towards this company to give them $89,000 instead of ordering it for $1? Marathon seems to be optimistic that people will be credulous.
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They’re making the bet that people (or their doctors) won’t know.
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Unlike you, the rest of us are imperfectly informed about everything
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The drug’s never been approved in the US, and Marathon has a special dispensation to market it for the rare disease, so it gets to name its price.
Would that be one of those new regulations we’re not going to have any of?
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The Duchene’s community is very well organized.
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[quote=“anonotwit, post:5, topic:94865, full:true”]
They’re making the bet that people (or their doctors) won’t know.
[/quote]They’re making the bet that people get prescribed something, and just take it to their pharmacy to get filled. Insurance covers all but $30 or something, and you never think to look elsewhere since that’s what you pay for all your prescriptions.
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People need to start buyers clubs to import these medicines just as they did in the early days of the aids epidemic. Maybe a nonprofit could help fund the purchases.
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For $89,000 you can fly to Sweden/, rent a home, see a doctor, get the drug, and have a heck of a good time before you come back to the United States of Pharmacopeia.
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Insurance is a never ending well of money right?
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Well, the $1 version isn’t covered by my insurance.
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To get the cost below the $1/dose threshold?
“Take one dose 89,000 times a day, with food.”
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Why stop there? Their greed is already transparent, why not just shake their little fists in the air and demand “a billion trillion gazillion dollars!” instead? For the vast, vast majority of people, $89,000 is so far out of reach that there’s practically no difference.
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That would be helpful. But also to make it easier for people to obtain - some of the international pharmacies have been pressured and can’t accept either PayPal or credit cards. But especially to help them to organize to put pressure on the US firms.
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[quote=“CanadianBeaver, post:12, topic:94865, full:true”]
Insurance is a never ending well of money right?
[/quote]Sort of. I’ve got a prescription that is $1200+ per month, but with insurance I only pay $70. I know that the insurance company gets kickbacks from some of the pharmaceutical companies for making it one of their preferred brands. They also get better rates from the pharmacies on some of the drugs for naming the pharmacies as “in-system”. Basically, the insurance company isn’t paying nearly as much as you’d pay without insurance. How much? There’s no real way to know, as the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies keep it all close to the chest so the public has no idea how badly they’re getting ripped off.
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BTW: http://www.pbs.gov.au/info/about-the-pbs
Those drugs would cost about $40/box here, or $7 for anyone with a concession card (pensioners etc). The taxpayers/government handles the rest of the bill, but that is also a tiny fraction of what Americans are paying.
Using the collective power of a nation’s health consumers to drive down prices works.
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Trump’s already built a wall to keep that sort of logic out. Ignorance, laid with a bed of hatred, sets up much faster than brick and mortar.
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