Sen. Bernie Sanders Proposes Radical Legislation to Lower Cost of HIV Drugs

[edfu]

Sen. Sanders (I-Vt.), for whom I have enormous respect, has initiated a legislative bill that would dramatically reduce the price of HAART medication via a novel mechanism.  He is, of course, a socialist (horrors!!!), and the bill stands no chance of passage, but it's necessary to hope and dream on World AIDS Day.

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=37c08931-3f1c-4cfa-b8f3-b3766f8c1708

[mecch]

I encourage people to read that article.  The concept is novel and thought-provoking.

[Ann]

From the article...

ATRIPLA, a three-drug regime that costs less than $200 to make but is sold in the United States for $24,000 a year.

Am I calculating this right? (Math was never my strong point) If the cost of $200 is also a yearly number, it would mean that a single pill of Atripla is being manufactured at a cost of 0.55 cents, but is being sold for $65.75 per pill???

You can't tell me that it takes over $65.00 per pill to recoup the costs of R&D, plus other overheads. No way in hell.

While I agree that it's only fair for the pharmaceutical companies to make some profit, this is just outrageous.

[ejwilliamson90]

That makes me sick to even read! I used to get my atripla through Anthem BC/BS at my old job for 24$ for a 3 month supply, now that I've got a new job and have Highmark BC/BS my atripla is 75$ for 3 months, my dapsone, lexapro, and zegrid also! And if I don't take all of those I'm obviously a hot mess! I know this is just my personal experience but I'm being bankrupted by the pharmaceutical companies I only make 15k a year. And when I applied for ohio adap ryan white part c in June I got wait listed, which is where I still am...... greatttt..... Hopefully this at least gets their attention to spur some more help for us!

[Miss Philicia]

From the article...

ATRIPLA, a three-drug regime that costs less than $200 to make but is sold in the United States for $24,000 a year.

Am I calculating this right? (Math was never my strong point) If the cost of $200 is also a yearly number, it would mean that a single pill of Atripla is being manufactured at a cost of 0.55 cents, but is being sold for $65.75 per pill???

You can't tell me that it takes over $65.00 per pill to recoup the costs of R&D, plus other overheads. No way in hell.

While I agree that it's only fair for the pharmaceutical companies to make some profit, this is just outrageous.

When we consider R&D costs that's not just for this pill, it's also for every other product Gilead/Bristol-Myers did research on and never made it to market.

Also, just curious -- how much does the NHS pay Gilead/Bristol-Myers for this product? If it's less than what we pay I suppose in some manner the US market is subsidizing your government health program, and then multiply that by every other EU country. So it might possibly follow if the pricing structure in the US was to suddenly change, then so would yours, but upwards. Last time I checked your country's budget and GDP/dept ratio sucked more than ours.

btw: I'm not saying that the price isn't inflated, but I am saying it's impossible to ascertain exactly how much as there are all of these "known unknowns".

[Miss Philicia]

That makes me sick to even read! I used to get my atripla through Anthem BC/BS at my old job for 24$ for a 3 month supply, now that I've got a new job and have Highmark BC/BS my atripla is 75$ for 3 months, my dapsone, lexapro, and zegrid also! And if I don't take all of those I'm obviously a hot mess! I know this is just my personal experience but I'm being bankrupted by the pharmaceutical companies I only make 15k a year. And when I applied for ohio adap ryan white part c in June I got wait listed, which is where I still am...... greatttt..... Hopefully this at least gets their attention to spur some more help for us!

Some of the drug companies have co-pay vouchers for people like you that are on wait lists. Sorry I don't know more, but I've seen it mentioned on here. Did you make sure and sit down with a case manager at a local ASO to go over all your options?

[ejwilliamson90]

I did but she wasn't very competent At first my ID doctor was in Columbus and he was very well respected and had articles published on him....but the visits to his office would only last 3 minutes, and my family doctor was afraid to even RX anything to me since he had little knowledge of HIV. So I switched to a new family doctor who does ID as well which saves me on copays majorly, he's very nice and each visit lasts about 45 minutes the first one lasting two hours. He had a case manager come in and talk to me about Ryan White part C, and have me sign up, but she never called me back, and I called her several times. I'm going to ask my doctor next time I see him about switching case managers, my friend who also goes to the same doctor and has the same case manager has actually had this lady forget to send in his papers getting him his atripla for free and he's missed doses because of her lack of care and attention to detail.

[buginme2]

You can sign up for Atripla copay assistance on your own, you dont need a case manager.  I called them myself, they mailed me a card, you give the card to your pharmacist.  Easy as pie.

[Ann]

EJ, you'll find threads on this type of subject in the Insurance and Benefits forum. Have a look in there and you'll find all sorts of good information. Good luck!