AIDS Activists Cry Foul as Drug Companies Push Prices to Record Levels
A steady onslaught of “unreasonable, unacceptable, and unjustified” increases in the price of therapies to treat HIV has caused activists in the US to accuse drugmakers of artificially inflating the market at the expense of people living with HIV/AIDS. In the US, prices charged for medications are often much higher than in other developed countries. This tends to work against patients, even those who have insurance. By working with legislators, consumer protection groups, and other advocacy groups, AIDS activists envision a future where unbridled greed does not dictate what treatments patients can afford or how public resources are spent in the effort to keep people alive.
(PRWEB) July 15, 2005 -- A steady onslaught of "unreasonable, unacceptable,
and unjustified" increases in the price of therapies to treat HIV has caused
activists in the U.S. to accuse drugmakers of artificially inflating the market
at the expense of people living with HIV/AIDS.
As an example, activists
point to the recent launch of the new drug Aptivus, a protease inhibitor
developed by Boehringer-Ingelheim, which came in at the highest price ever for
this class of medication—more than $13,000 per year, which does not include the
cost of other medications that must be taken in combination with Aptivus.
"We are approaching the point where a year's worth of HIV medications in
the U.S. will cost anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 a year. Every time a new
medication is made available, it usually comes in at a new higher price than
others in its class," stated Nelson Vergel, a member of the AIDS Treatment
Activists Coalition. "The same thing happened with Reyataz, another protease
inhibitor made by Bristol-Myers Squibb. It was the first once-daily medication
of this kind, and the company priced it at an all-time high, with regular
increases since then. It now costs almost $11,000 per year. This behavior is
simply unreasonable, unacceptable, and unjustified."
Indeed, many
healthcare and community groups question why there is no guidance for drug
pricing based on type of medication or disease.
In the U.S., prices
charged for medications are often much higher than in other developed countries.
This tends to work against patients, even those who have insurance.
"Many insurance companies have focused on the high price of drugs to
treat HIV," said Howard Grossman, MD, Executive Director of the American Academy
of HIV Medicine. "Healthcare providers are finding their choices increasingly
limited as higher-priced drugs are taken off 'preferred' lists, in some cases
raising patient co-pays from $20 to $75 or more per prescription. Anything that
prevents doctors from prescribing the properly-indicated drugs reduces our
chance of controlling HIV. High prices are driving this."
But privately
insured patients aren't the only ones suffering under this no-hold-barred system
of pricing for life-saving and medically necessary medications. Public payer
systems, such as the underfunded AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), provide
medications for more than half of all patients with HIV/AIDS in the US.
These programs must renegotiate prices regularly with drug companies,
and steep increases in medication prices make it difficult to provide medication
to the same number of people each year. With numbers of new infections
increasing steadily and flat funding for ADAPs, medication waiting lists have
developed in several states.
To make matters worse, new legislation
forbids government negotiation with drug companies on prices. In other words,
patients receiving government assistance for healthcare may not have access to
new and better medications if excluded from formulary because of expense. Even
if the medications are added, they will cause patients to meet individual
spending caps even more quickly and will use up allotted budgets.
"Sadly,
Boehringer-Ingelheim failed to realize that the size of the potential Aptivus
market is directly tied to patients' access through publicly funded programs,
and they just made that market a lot smaller," said Lei Chou, Director of
Mobilization at the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP). "State
Medicaid Programs will delay coverage of the drug for months; AIDS Drug
Assistance Programs will have to place access restrictions or may not cover it
at all. This pricing decision will put Aptivus out of reach for the majority of
patients who can benefit from it."
As companies continue to create a
system of haves and have-nots for people living with HIV/AIDS, activists plan to
redouble their efforts against price-gouging and profiteering. By working with
legislators, consumer protection groups, and other advocacy groups, AIDS
activists envision a future where unbridled greed does not dictate what
treatments patients can afford or how public resources are spent in the effort
to keep people alive.
ATAC (www.atac-usa.org) is a national coalition of AIDS activists,
many living with HIV/AIDS working together to end the AIDS epidemic by advancing
research on HIV/AIDS.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/7/prweb261725.htm