Bernie Sanders thinks this $89,000-a-year drug should be $1,000 a year
Published: Mar 22, 2017 5:05 p.m. ET
PTC Therapeutics’ purchase of an $89,000-a-year Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug from Marathon Pharmaceuticals spurred immediate questions about what changes, if any, would be made to the product’s controversial price tag.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) seem to be wondering the same thing.
The two lawmakers, who had previously written to Marathon Pharmaceuticals about Emflaza’s price tag, sent a letter to PTC Therapeutics PTCT, +3.23% on Wednesday asking about the same subject.
“We urge you to keep the price of this relatively common steroid at its current importation cost,” or about $1,000 to $1,200 a year, the letter said. “Doing so will allow patients to use deflazacort in combination therapies without going into bankruptcy.”
Emflaza is a corticosteroid drug, used to improve the muscle strength of DMD patients who experience progressive muscle degeneration. As the letter notes, corticosteroids are available fairly cheaply in other parts of the world, although Emflaza was the first approved in the U.S.
After Marathon set Emflaza’s price at $89,000 a year, backlash from the DMD community was swift, prompting Marathon to pause the drug’s launch.
When PTC Therapeutics announced its purchase of Emflaza on March 16, the company said it planned to “re-examine” its price.
Observers wondered whether the company had any choice but to lower the price, with RBC Capital Markets analyst Simos Simeonidis questioning “how low is low enough, especially when patients (and now politicians, given all the noise) know that the drug is available overseas for $1,000/year?”
Christine McSherry, co-founder and executive director of the DMD nonprofit the Jett Foundation, told MarketWatch she spoke with a representative from PTC Therapeutics this week. The representative told her the company wants to collaborate with the community and work to a common goal, McSherry said.
McSherry said she’s inclined to believe that because PTC Therapeutics has been developing DMD drugs for many years and is familiar with the patient community.
What price range would DMD patients and families be willing to entertain? McSherry has settled on about $10,000 to $15,000 a year.
That’s still more than the price in Mexico, where many go to get a year’s supply at a time, according to McSherry, but far lower than the original, $89,000-a-year price.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bernie-sanders-thinks-this-89000-a-year-drug-should-be-1000-a-year-2017-03-22