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Why Is The Price Of Copaxone Increasing Rapidly?
Question: My wife was diagnosed with MS over 25 years ago, started on Copaxone in the mid 1990's. At that time I had employer health care which paid for the Copacone at about $800.00 per month. In 2002 I went on disability and lost my insurance. My wife never worked so was not eligible for any health care benifits, so I had to pay all of her medical expenses. During this period the price of Copaxone varied between about $1500.00 to $1700.00 per month. I had to buy this drug for over 6 years, and along with doctor and hospital bills this brought me to the brink of bankruptcy. When my wife finally started on Medicare I thought I was okey, but the price kept increasing to the point I needed a private XXXXXXX just to pay to copay. Now I've learned the price is up to $5400.00 per month and the private charities are out of funding. I receive just enough income to get along without the approximately $7000.00 in copays I would have to make to continue buying Copaxone. This drug has been out for over 20 years so why is there no generic medication, and why has the price increased to $5400.00 per month?
Brief Answer:
Read below
Detailed Answer:
I read your question carefully and I understand your concern.
What you say is a phenomenon which has been discussed over the last year, even in the most prestigious neurology journal (Neurology). The prices of ms drugs have never been low but over the course of the years they have continued to increase with a scary rate, a rate which doesn't correspond to inflation rate in the general pharmaceutical market. What has been notable is that while there are now some new drugs on the market, which would have been hoped would lead to a reduction in the price of the old ones (copaxone and interferons), quite the contrary happened, these companies elected to increase the price at the level of the new ones and now in terms of pricing there is not really much to choose from, they have all exorbitant prices.
One cause for that is that the production of these drugs is very intricate and there has therefore been no production of generic alternatives. So the big companies had no competition and could dictate. Last year there was talk of a generic alternative of glatiramer acetate (Copaxone) which would be 30% less but than the patent company opened a patent lawsuit which blocked the process.
The other cause is related to the US and its free market policy. Unlike other industrialized countries where the main health provider can negotiate prices, Medicaid is not allowed to do so, so companies can do as they want to increase profit. That is manifested by the fact that in countries like Canada, Australia etc where healthcare providers can negotiate the prices are lower (still considerable but not as much as in US). So it is a issue which must be raised by neurological societes and MS patients societies, more noise should be made, one single individual can not change that.
What would happen if Copaxone is interrupted, well every patient is different, on average Copaxone slows progression of disease by about 29%, that is on average, might be less in your case and not much happen or more and have new symptoms. You have to ask your doctor about the generics which as I said are scheduled to be released by a company called Momenta Pharmaceuticals, might lower the cost somewhat.
I remain at your disposal for other questions.
Read below
Detailed Answer:
I read your question carefully and I understand your concern.
What you say is a phenomenon which has been discussed over the last year, even in the most prestigious neurology journal (Neurology). The prices of ms drugs have never been low but over the course of the years they have continued to increase with a scary rate, a rate which doesn't correspond to inflation rate in the general pharmaceutical market. What has been notable is that while there are now some new drugs on the market, which would have been hoped would lead to a reduction in the price of the old ones (copaxone and interferons), quite the contrary happened, these companies elected to increase the price at the level of the new ones and now in terms of pricing there is not really much to choose from, they have all exorbitant prices.
One cause for that is that the production of these drugs is very intricate and there has therefore been no production of generic alternatives. So the big companies had no competition and could dictate. Last year there was talk of a generic alternative of glatiramer acetate (Copaxone) which would be 30% less but than the patent company opened a patent lawsuit which blocked the process.
The other cause is related to the US and its free market policy. Unlike other industrialized countries where the main health provider can negotiate prices, Medicaid is not allowed to do so, so companies can do as they want to increase profit. That is manifested by the fact that in countries like Canada, Australia etc where healthcare providers can negotiate the prices are lower (still considerable but not as much as in US). So it is a issue which must be raised by neurological societes and MS patients societies, more noise should be made, one single individual can not change that.
What would happen if Copaxone is interrupted, well every patient is different, on average Copaxone slows progression of disease by about 29%, that is on average, might be less in your case and not much happen or more and have new symptoms. You have to ask your doctor about the generics which as I said are scheduled to be released by a company called Momenta Pharmaceuticals, might lower the cost somewhat.
I remain at your disposal for other questions.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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