New Drug Pricing Consensus Letter, Sign-Ons Requested
Treatment activists are circulating a letter on new-drug pricing--especially regarding abacavir (Ziagen™) and efavirenz (Sustiva™), which are likely to be approved soon. This consensus statement, to be signed by organizations and individuals, addresses concerns that the new drugs may be priced significantly higher than others in the same class (nucleoside analogs, and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, respectively).The statement notes:
The longer survival of patients today allows manufacturers to charge lower prices and still have a healthy profit and incentive for further research;
Abacavir and efavirenz will be used by both treatment naive and treatment experienced patients, making the potential market very large;
Both the development and production costs of these drugs appear to be much lower than for the protease inhibitors;
Because patients are using more drugs today, the overall decrease in the cost of HIV therapy could be reversed if prices are set too high;
State ADAP drug-assistance programs often face bankruptcy before the end of their fiscal year and must stop providing vital drugs; both ADAP and Medicaid programs are under close scrutiny to cut costs; and HMOs are also starting to restrict drugs because of the expense.
Exploitative pricing will trigger widespread hostility, contentious debate, and closer scrutiny of industry practices in general.
This consensus letter is sponsored by the Fair Price Working Group, which currently includes Martin Delaney of Project Inform, Bill Bahlman of ACT UP/New York, Ron Baker of San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Dave Gilden of GMHC Treatment Issues, Linda Grinberg of the Foundation for AIDS and Immune Research, and John S. James of AIDS Treatment News. To obtain the full statement, or to sign for your organization or as an individual, contact Linda Grinberg by email at linda_grinberg@prodigy.com, by fax at 310-471-4565, or by voicemail at 310-471-4108.
