Post by gallito on Sept 29, 2015 20:49:10 GMT -5
Quebec-based Valeant Pharmaceutical's price hikes of drugs long off patent has raised the ire of U.S. legislators and frustrated Canadian physicians.
Democrats on the House of Representatives committee on oversight and government reform sent a letter Monday to the committee's Republican chairman seeking a subpoena that would force Valeant to turn over documents tied to the U.S. price hikes of two heart drugs.
In the U.S., the price of Isuprel or Isoprenaline increased 2,500 per cent and Nitropress went up 1,700 per cent in three years, as the drug changed hands. Not all of those price increases were Valeant's doing, but a significant part of them were. Valeant purchased the rights to both heart drugs from Marathon Pharmaceuticals in February, and then further boosted the price of Isuprel almost six-fold and Nitropress almost four-fold, according to the Democrats.
As huge overnight drug price hikes becomes an election issue in the U.S., some doctors in Canada struggle to get other prices rolled back.
Dr. Eve Roberts is a former liver specialist at the University of Toronto who has written about prices of essential drugs. She's treated patients who were affected by an increase in the price of one of Valeant's medications in 2013.
"I am still feeling quite traumatized by what happened to my patients and I feel traumatized for patients in similar situations," Roberts said in an interview Tuesday from Halifax.
Tablets of Syprine or trientine are a second-line drug for Wilson's disease.
In late 2013, Valeant Canada announced that as of January 2014, the price of a one-month supply of Syprine would match the U.S. price of roughly $13,244, or about 13 times higher than the previous price.
Most patients take three or four tablets a day. The medication makes the difference between a full and productive life or a downward course of increasing liver and neurological disease, Roberts said.
Liver specialists and pharmacy groups drew attention to the price hike problem, including an editorial in the Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
"When push came to shove, the price was rolled back," Roberts recalled. "It was a bad increase for the professionals. It was a terrible experience for the patients."
Democrats on the House of Representatives committee on oversight and government reform sent a letter Monday to the committee's Republican chairman seeking a subpoena that would force Valeant to turn over documents tied to the U.S. price hikes of two heart drugs.
In the U.S., the price of Isuprel or Isoprenaline increased 2,500 per cent and Nitropress went up 1,700 per cent in three years, as the drug changed hands. Not all of those price increases were Valeant's doing, but a significant part of them were. Valeant purchased the rights to both heart drugs from Marathon Pharmaceuticals in February, and then further boosted the price of Isuprel almost six-fold and Nitropress almost four-fold, according to the Democrats.
As huge overnight drug price hikes becomes an election issue in the U.S., some doctors in Canada struggle to get other prices rolled back.
Dr. Eve Roberts is a former liver specialist at the University of Toronto who has written about prices of essential drugs. She's treated patients who were affected by an increase in the price of one of Valeant's medications in 2013.
"I am still feeling quite traumatized by what happened to my patients and I feel traumatized for patients in similar situations," Roberts said in an interview Tuesday from Halifax.
Tablets of Syprine or trientine are a second-line drug for Wilson's disease.
In late 2013, Valeant Canada announced that as of January 2014, the price of a one-month supply of Syprine would match the U.S. price of roughly $13,244, or about 13 times higher than the previous price.
Most patients take three or four tablets a day. The medication makes the difference between a full and productive life or a downward course of increasing liver and neurological disease, Roberts said.
Liver specialists and pharmacy groups drew attention to the price hike problem, including an editorial in the Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
"When push came to shove, the price was rolled back," Roberts recalled. "It was a bad increase for the professionals. It was a terrible experience for the patients."