1900% Drug Price Increase
Saturday, January 20th, 2018 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jesse_the_kUp until yesterday, hypothyroidism has been inexpensive to treat. Lyothyronine was synthesized in the 1950s, and was first approved by the US Food & Drug Administration in 1954.
Thursday I saw my endocrinologist and she suggested changing my T3 dosage. But my pharmacy had bad news: they didn’t have access to any generic lyothyronine. My insurance won’t pay for a proprietary (brand-name) drug unless the physician explicitly requests that in the prescription. So, I ask the endo to write another script. Then MyGuy went to pick it up and
STICKER SHOCK
Generic lyothyronine: $34.24
Cytomel (lyothyronine from Pfizer): $654.40.
Yes, that’s a twenty-fold increase. I haven’t been able to find out why: it could be because the drug was manufactured in Puerto Rico; it could be because [horrible news thing I don’t know details of] changed the tax incentives for generic drug producers; it could be the phase of the moon.
Two pieces of good news: I can afford to pay for it, and I can finally spell lyothyronine.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-20 11:18 pm (UTC)Not your fault
Date: 2018-01-21 08:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-20 11:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-21 08:22 pm (UTC)Fuckers spends millions lobbying lawmakers and more millions lobbying doctors. Who pays for it? WE DO.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-20 11:30 pm (UTC)Amen
Date: 2018-01-21 08:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-20 11:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-21 08:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-20 11:57 pm (UTC)100%
Date: 2018-01-21 08:24 pm (UTC)I know there are at least 100 people who have faced that choice today and can't afford it. And their easily managed disease will go untreated. They will suffer, their families will suffer, ....
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-21 05:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-21 08:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-21 06:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-21 08:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-21 02:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-21 08:26 pm (UTC)When searching for *why*, I found that my health plan, working with five others & the VA, are planning on creating a non profit drug company to ensure generic supplies.
Fucking capitalists have to recreate socialism the hard way, with human blood greasing the skids.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-21 02:46 pm (UTC)One thing's for sure, if the generic can be manufactured for $35, then Pfizer can do it for the same.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-21 08:27 pm (UTC)In fact, chances are good that the Pfizer drug and the generic drug are made IN THE SAME FACTORY, with different labels. (Not always the case for newer meds, esp psych meds.)
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-23 12:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-21 06:14 pm (UTC)Wait -- the COPAY is $2k?
Date: 2018-01-21 08:30 pm (UTC)Geezopeet.
Oh! Here's the NYT headline we both knew'd exist:
"Makers of Humira and Enbrel Using New Drug Patents to Delay Generic Versions"
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/16/business/makers-of-humira-and-enbrel-using-new-drug-patents-to-delay-generic-versions.html
Re: Wait -- the COPAY is $2k?
Date: 2018-01-31 06:17 pm (UTC)Now I feel icky. I know that tactic exists and is used, but still. Usually, my job doesn't depend on it.
Re: Wait -- the COPAY is $2k?
Date: 2018-02-02 12:03 am (UTC)You're not responsible for the suits' conspiracy to maintain high profit margins. And you need to eat and pay for internet.
Re: Wait -- the COPAY is $2k?
Date: 2018-02-02 03:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 08:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 05:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 02:59 pm (UTC)Thank you so much!
Is the levo shortage P.R. related?
So it turns out it's my mom'n'pop's supplier that's charging three times as much as the national chains. On the one hand, yipes! On the other hand, these folks know me, and will do things like slide around Rx limits so I can get enough pills to take vacations. Ugh.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 05:19 pm (UTC)Your M&P's supplier is a cutthroat. Why can't there be a nationwide consortium of small pharmacies to even the playing field? Until they get this sorted out, I would consider scheduling vacations around my pill supplies and look around for a national chain to deal with locally or even do mail order. My insurance is an HMO (Kaiser) and they give me three months supply for the price of two if I choose their mail order delivery. God, I love Kaiser. Maybe you can afford to pay for an outrageous markup on Cytomel once but I bet you can't do it forever without having to cut back on something else you need or want.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 07:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 04:31 pm (UTC)I use a small local pharmacy (because they do things like deliver my drugs, and will actually deliver my pain medication, and have been known to drop off my meds after hours if i was a total dingbat and ran out of meds before i called them. They'll also give me enough to tide me over while arguing with insurance or docs for the refill. This last round, my Symbicort, which I forgot to cancel the refill [i hoard meds after i hit my out of pocket max for the year, and even if i took it as prescribed we easily have half a year's supply; we also have 10 boxes of Voltaren and four open tubes], clocked in at 200, but they found a coupon to get it to zero.), but i've had to go to chain pharmacies for a couple of meds.
(Actually, as a question, have you tried voltaren? I can't remember how much chronic pain you have in your muscles/skeleton, and lords know i may very well have asked this before.)
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 07:21 pm (UTC)Yepper to Voltaren! Fortunately there's a local compounding pharmacy, because the commercial creams are stinky as hell. So I use a 4% Lidocaine/5% diclofenac cream that's unscented and even makes my hands soft. Also Lidocaine patches when my neck is screaming.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 07:29 pm (UTC)Yup! Pretty sure that's where Yena and I originally saw it mentioned.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 07:36 pm (UTC)....and I think I will move this convo to
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-23 02:32 pm (UTC)Voltaren gel is great, and I kind of like the smell. That said, if there are cats in your life and you don't already know this, don't let the cats lick your skin where you've applied it, or rub up against it (they'll lick it off their own fur.) It's dangerous for them even in very small doses. I don't know if the same's true for dogs. It might be, but cats have weird metabolisms even compared to other animals their size, so who knows.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-23 02:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-23 02:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-02 12:22 am (UTC)https://www.metafilter.com/172109/On-any-other-Tuesday
about the folks who die because health care in general is too expensive because we live in a country with an irrational desire to [... snip ...]
(Stopping now due to news-fast promise)
Here from Fing Meds
Date: 2018-01-23 04:27 am (UTC)(I take armor thyroid because T4 alone is not enough for me, and I want the calcitonin for bone health.)
Re: Here from Fing Meds
Date: 2018-02-02 12:24 am (UTC)https://www.goodrx.com/armour-thyroid?drug-name=armour+thyroid