Bernie Sanders

Donkees

(31,424 posts) Thu Oct 20, 2016, 02:25 PM Oct 2016

Sanders seeks Ariad data on cancer drug price hikes (Act Two)

By ED SILVERMAN @Pharmalot

OCTOBER 20, 2016
Call it Bernie Sanders vs. Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Act Two.

The Vermont senator and erstwhile presidential candidate, who has helped make prescription drug pricing a high-profile issue, sent the company a letter (Link below) on Thursday asking for a plethora of data that might explain a string of “staggering” and “outrageous” price hikes for an expensive cancer treatment.

The move comes six days after Sanders tweeted about the price hikes, which sent Ariad stock plummeting and wiped out $387 million in its market capitalization in one day. The tweet was only the latest in a growing list of attacks on the cost of medicines that has rattled the pharmaceutical industry, as a growing number of federal and state lawmakers look for ways to contain costs.

Ariad, however, gained notice after several price hikes for its Iclusig chronic myeloid leukemia drug. Since the beginning of the year, the company has raised the price four times for a cumulative increase of 27 percent. The medication now has a list price of $16,560 a month, or almost $199,000 a year, before any rebates or discounts. And Ariad also raised the price twice last year.

There was more. The company also took steps to goose profits by restricting patient choices.

As we reported previously, Ariad effectively doubled the price of its 15 mg tablet. Until September 2014, a two-month supply, which was 60 tablets, carried a list price of $10,350, but Ariad discontinued sales of this quantity. Instead, the company began charging the same price for 30 tablets of the 15 mg dose. Ariad also reportedly discontinued sales of its 30 mg tablet.

“In the interest of patients and taxpayers, we are interested in learning more about the impact that the escalating price and restrictions on product availability have had,” Sanders and US Representative Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) wrote in their Oct. 20 letter to Ariad Chief Executive Paris Panayiotopoulos. Sanders and Cummings have previously teamed on investigations into drug pricing, notably sudden increases in some generic drugs.

https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2016/10/20/bernie-sanders-ariad-cancer-drug-data/

Link to Letter:

http://freepdfhosting.com/cae734d479.pdf

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Sanders seeks Ariad data on cancer drug price hikes (Act Two) (Original Post) Donkees Oct 2016 OP

Sanders, Cummings Send Letter on ARIAD's Staggering Price Increases Donkees Oct 2016 #1

Donkees

(31,424 posts)

1. Sanders, Cummings Send Letter on ARIAD's Staggering Price Increases

Reply to Donkees (Original post)

Thu Oct 20, 2016, 02:34 PM

Oct 2016

Thursday, October 20, 2016
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) sent a letter to ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Thursday requesting information about why the company has increased the price of leukemia drug Iclusig four times in 2016 to $199,000 a year.

ARIAD has raised the price of the drug by more than $80,000 over the last several years. Sanders and Cummings are also investigating whether the company took additional steps to boost profits by discontinuing sales of certain dosages and quantities in order to charge patients and insurers more in exchange for less medicine.

“These outrageous sales tactics indicate that ARIAD is more concerned with its profit than with its patients,” Sanders and Cummings wrote.

ARIAD received approval to market Iclusig in December 2012 for patients who did not respond to available therapies for chronic myeloid leukemia. Within a year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requested sales and clinical trials of the drug be suspended due to reports of serious side effects. FDA allowed ARIAD to resume selling Iclusig in December 2013, but only to a smaller subset of patients who are resistant to other treatments.

“Despite this new evidence showing the drug posed a far greater safety risk to patients than was known when the drug came on the market, ARIAD nonetheless raised the price of Iclusig several times over the subsequent four years,” Sanders and Cummings wrote.

“In the interest of patients and taxpayers, we are interested in learning more about the impact that the escalating price and restrictions on product availability have had.”

To read the letter here, click here.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-cummings-send-letter-on-ariads-staggering-price-increases

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