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382218 tn?1341181487

Should Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Cost $62,000 a Year?

Interesting discussion re: the pricing of MS drugs.

I am quite surprised to see Copaxone priced at $5500 - $6000 per month at Walmart/Walgreen's in the US. Mine is priced at about $1600, though I don't pay anything out of pocket for it.

http://www.healthline.com/health-news/ms-why-are-ms-drug-prices-so-high-071913
4 Responses
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572651 tn?1530999357
in real prices - meaning what my insurance paid ( and my copay amount) - here are a few samples

Ampyra  insurance paid $4,383.18  for 90 day supply
I paid $100

Modafinil (Provigil generic)  insurance paid $6,118.79  for 90 days of generic drugs
I paid $20

It's not just the DMD's that are so priced out of range of people without insurance.



Helpful - 0
1831849 tn?1383228392
My insurace company was being billed $6,900/month for my Tysabri infusions, $6,000 for the drug and $900 for the actual infusion. My out of pocket for the year was $500-$600.

My out of pocket for Ampyra was $300/month. That is until I said "Pretty Please" at which time it went down to $40/month.

Like the guy from Tufts said, drug pricing is a Black Box thing...

Kyle
Helpful - 0
382218 tn?1341181487
Yep that makes sense re: Canada vs US pricing. The max co-pay in my province s $30/month but zero for me as my employer plan pays this remaining cost not covered by govt.
Helpful - 0
5112396 tn?1378017983
The 'list price' is really just what the insurance company can expect to be charged, not the individual patient. As it says at the end, people who can not afford it can avail of patients' assistance programmes, and if this proves prohibitive still, there may be programmes or grants through charities of societies to make up the difference.

Obviously, this is not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm unsure that many (if any) MS patients are stumping up a tenth of the quoted price, out of pocket. I certainly hope I'm right about that! It is very hard to wrap the mind around pharmaceutical price points.

Here in Ireland, DMDs are free under the HSE, so it's the government that haggles for the price paid. I'd imagine the actual cost is a lot closer to the one you quoted for Canada (actually curious to go look this up now). In the US, perhaps it's as simple as 'they charge it because they can'. And everyone's premiums go up and up and up and up...
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