BIG PHARMA WATCH: DRUG MAKER PRICES CHEMO TREATMENT TEN TIMES ABOVE THE MARKET AS PATIENTS FACE SHORTAGES

Areva Pharmaceuticals Price-Gouges Cancer Patients Who Rely on Older Oncology Drug

This week, Areva Pharmaceuticals, a U.S.-based drugmaker, brought an older oncology treatment to market used for patients suffering from certain forms of Leukemia. According to reports, the drug, fludarabine, has been in short supply and hospitals and cancer centers have struggled to secure supplies of the drug. Areva Pharmaceuticals began marketing the drug at a price of $2,736 – more than 10 times what other drug makers charge for the same drug, between $109 and $272.

STAT News highlighted how the high price for the in-demand chemotherapy drug will have consequences for patients, the limited evidence for the drug’s outrageous price, and the growing trend of drug makers’ charging egregious prices for treatments that are much needed by patients.

Stephen Schondelmeyer, professor of pharmaceutical economics at the University of Minnesota, said, “Unless there’s something extremely unusual about this drug — and I don’t see any evidence that there is — there may be some increased costs, but nothing to justify a 10-fold” price hike.

Jason Westin, an oncologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said, “This is a small, niche drug… But it’s a critical, life-saving drug, one that our patients desperately need.”

The massive price set on an older chemotherapy treatment facing shortages is just the latest example of Big Pharma’s egregious pricing practices — including setting high prices or repeatedly increasing prices on drugs that have been on the market for decades without any innovation to improve their clinical value.

Read more about how Big Pharma’s pricing practices are driving a crisis of affordability for cancer patients HERE.

Read more about how Big Pharma targets cancer drugs to boost profits HERE.

Learn more about bipartisan, market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable HERE.