Abbott raises AIDS drug price more than 400 percent

[Purveyor]

(12-19) 17:39 PST NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. (AP) --

Abbott Laboratories Inc. is hiking the U.S. price of an important AIDS drug more than fourfold, citing its sharp increase in treatment value and the costs of improving its formulation.

The company informed doctors, AIDS groups and pharmacies of the change in price in Norvir earlier this month, company spokeswoman Melissa Brotz said Friday. The wholesale price for a month's treatment of the protease inhibitor is being raised to $265 from $54, she said.

<snip>

Critics of the price hike cited by the Journal say Abbott's intention is to push patients away from using Norvir in drug cocktails and switch to its newer AIDS treatment, Kaletra -- something Abbott denies. They also say the company's decision involving the 7-year-old drug raises questions about the industry's traditional contention that drug prices are high because of the need to recoup research and development costs.

"This really puts a lie to the idea that companies set drug prices to fund their R&D," Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, told the newspaper. His group operates clinics in the United States, Africa and Central America.


Associated Press Link

[davidinalameda]

1. pardon my french

but the drug companies are nothing but a bunch of fucking crooks

[Catshrink]

2. merci beaucoup

le verite


(I hope that's really French and is spelled correctly)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Because they can

:D

[Voltaire99]

7. Well said

The polices of these industries are as inimical to life as those of Al Qaeda.

[Pax Argent]

19. Ain't it the truth

Shit like this always reminds me of that Dilbert cartoon where Wally asks Catbert, the evil HR director, why he is lowering Wally's pay. Catbert tells Wally to hand him his tie and he will demonstrate.

The last panel shows Dilbert asking Wally what Catbert said. Wally replies, while holding his newly-shredded tie, "because he can".

If this doesn't sum up the pricing strategy of all producers of necessary commodities (i.e. energy, pharmaceuticals, etc.), I don't know what does.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

25. Yes it's what the "market" will sustain and this simply underscores

the immorality of making everything subject to that construct.

[Zhade]

13. I'll go you one better.

There is no way that some people will now be able to afford the drugs.

There is no way that Big Pharm doesn't realize this.

There is every reason to call the men behind such decisions what they are - murderers. They will be killing poor AIDS patients as surely as if they pulled the trigger.

May they rot in the lowest, vilest depths of Hell.

[donsu]

16. agree with you plus they should be charged with

crimes against humanity and go to prison.

[Avalon Sparks]

18. I completely agree with you Zhade~

The men behind these decisions are murderers!

[tlcandie]

4. Is this because of the new government funded health insurance

and they are getting ready to bilk it for all it's' worth in regards to Rx?

Just asking as a side thought or question I had because I've not spent that much time on the new bill.

[MisterP]

5. link won't work

[Purveyor]

6. Fixed link...

Link

[PsN2Wind]

8. Politicians

just ain't as cheap as they used to be.

[0007]

9. I know the feeling, and it ain't good.

We're all getting nailed by drug companies and big time government. My supplemental health insurance has doubled. It can keep up with my social security increases. The golden years have turned into a nightmare.

[jamesinca]

10. And just think, there is the hole in coverage at $2,100

the Medicare bill that was just passed has a whole in coverage between $2,100 and $5,000. With drug prices like these one will reach this price in 10 months. Hope you have no comorbidities to go with your AIDS.

[SadEagle]

11. disgusting.

This kind of stuff makes me feel that all drug companies should be non-profits, where all the incomes only go to further research and operation, and not in someone's pockets. I also wonder how the people who invented those medications feel... you know, imagine the researchers, who probably work extremely long hours, dedicating a lot of their mind and life to trying to control a horrible disease, only to have a company make this medication inaccessible to many?

:mad:

Heck, if one person dies because of the increase in prices, I think the person who made the decision would be pretty darn close to being a murderer.

[Occulus]

12. Could this be considered attempted murder?

As in, "Pay me more or die!!"

Well, I guess manipulating a fatally captive audience to your drug du jour is okay. Free market at work and all. /sarcasm

[letthewindblow]

15. It's more like

Pay me more AND die!!

[letthewindblow]

14. Disgusting!

Some of the (side) effects of these drugs:
http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data2/pieffects.htm

Some pictures of the body deformations these drugs cause:
http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/news/bodydeform.htm

[Liberal Veteran]

20. Virusmyth is a denialist website....

That tries to convince people that HIV is a harmless virus and that anti-virals and bad behavior causes deaths attributed to AIDS.

As a person who has HIV and full-blown AIDS, I have nothing but contempt for their propaganda. I got infected in 1985 and didn't do drugs, exercised, and lived a healthy lifestyle and still ended up with full-blown AIDS in 14 years later taking no anti-virals at all.

I guess it was just fucking magic that immune system collapsed? At least that's what the people at virusmyth would have me believe.

Do some of these drugs have side effects? Hell yes! So do drugs that control diabetes and other conditions, but I would rather risk lipodistrophy or neuropathy than die.

BTW, I have been on these drugs for HIV for almost 4 years now (as of Jan. 2004 it will be 4 years exactly) and have suffered no side effects other than occasional stomach upset even though one of the drugs I am taking is called poison by virusmyth: AZT.

I have nothing but contempt for HIV denialists who try to convince people with HIV to avoid lifesaving treatments and use scare tactics and junk science.

What's worse is how they treat their own when one of them dies of something commonly consided an AIDS related illness, such as one of the leading denialists, Huw Christie who died of Kaposi's Sarcoma (one of the very first recognized AIDS complications which led to it being called "gay cancer" in the early days of the AIDS crisis and until HIV came along, was a fairly rare form of cancer). When the denialist editor died of KS, his "friends" in the denialist community slandered him by claiming he didn't live a healthy lifestyle and that their were rumors of him using drugs that lead to his "condition".

It's just shameful to watch the kind of acrobatics that the denialists put themselves through to keep themselves convinced of their tinfoil hat conspiracy theories about HIV.

[letthewindblow]

22. I am very sorry for your disease liberal_veteran

Truly. I am only trying to help. I researched for long time before speaking out. It seems to me that establishment AIDS scientists supported by pharma corporations are the ones using scare tactics and bad science. I am scientist myself and I had experience with junk science.
May I ask which desease (out of those 30) you ended up with after taking no anti-virals at all?

[Liberal Veteran]

23. Pneumonia, angular chelitis, and a hideous case of esophogeal candiasis.

At time of presentation. Before I ever tested postive for HIV.

In 1985, I caught my boyfriend cheating on me and broke up with him. I immediately got tested for HIV. But it came up negative. Approximately 3-4 weeks later I had a brief illness which a doctor at a clinic just diagnosed as a viral infection that I now know was consistent with classic seroconversion illness: fever, myalgia, tender lymphadenopathy, a head to toe non-itchy rash that self-resolved after about a week.

In 1990, my ex-boyfriend died of AIDS before he even had a chance to take what little in the way of anti-viral treatment was available at the time. He died of PCP while hospitalised at that time.

In 1999, I began to get subtle but, in retrospect, alarming symptoms from my body. Difficulty in swallowing, tears at the corners of my mouth, frequent diarrhea, unexplained weight loss and fatigue. Then I got really sick with pneumonia, went a clinic and the doctor diagnosed me with pneumonia and shoved a mirror into my face and showed me the the nasty little chalky like substance known as candiasis which was coating the inside of my mouth and further which was why I was having difficulty swallowing. What was really shocking is that I had lost almost 30 pounds without noticing. A 5'7" male weighing 110lbs is not particularly a good thing. He suggested at that time that I go get tested for HIV.

I did that and was not particularly surprised that the test came back positive.

It was nearly two months after most of my symptoms had resolved to a large extent that I had my first bloodwork done to determine the extent of my illness. Bloodwork results were a viral load of 250000 and 22 t-cells and an appalling cd4/cd8 percentage which I would have dig through my papers to find. I was negative for Hepatitis B and C and negative for TB and toxoplasmosis.

I started on combivir/sustiva at that time and have been on it ever since. I have had a plasma viral load of undetectable on ultrasensitive assays every since and my tcell count has slowly increased, although never quite coming up to a level that I could stop prophylaxis until I did some research and convinced my doctor to prescribe a few courses of interleukin-2 which got my t-cell count to approximately 250 from their plateau level of 130 after two years of HAART.

In that time I have done quite a bit of research into the entire history and science of HIV and AIDS, including the theories of Duesburg and the articles of Celia Farber in spin magazine and virusmyth. You would be hard pressed to try to "educate" me on the dissident theories as I have throughly examined them and found that not only did I find their theories somewhat wanting and specious at best, but dangerous.

So, while I am sure you believe in virusmyth and what it purports, my own anecdotal evidence suggests that if I had listened to virusmyth, I would probably be dead at this point in time. Indeed, according to virusmyth, given that I have been taking poisonous substances (lamivudine, zidovudine, and efavirenz) for 4 years now, I should have one foot in the grave at this point instead of being a healthy productive citizen.

[The Zanti Regent]

17. Thnk you Supply Side Jesus

Thank you for showing the selfishness of Corporate America!

AMEN!

[VolcanoJen]

21. Does Abbott make any anti-depressants?

Possibly they're just trying to fund their latest ad campaign, in which they convince otherwise-happy Americans that they are indeed entirely joyless, and should succumb to an Abbott "Happy" Cocktail.

This article is so disturbing. The greed of the pharmaceutical companies is absolutely boundless.

[wiley]

24. This is just the beginning of more GREED and DEATH

VANESSA FUHRMANS /THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

"Critics also say that Abbott's decision belies the drug industry's primary rationale for high drug prices -- that pharmaceutical companies need to recoup their research and development costs and to fuel innovation. Norvir has been on the market for seven years and has enjoyed a relatively long product life compared with most AIDS drugs."

Yeah, guess who gets to pick up this 5-fold price increase? This should bust our health budget for the year. Workers Unite! Tell your companies to refuse to pay for any price increase. Have your company buy the drug from Canada instead and not pass premium increases on to YOU. This is the first shot in a war that will kill all of us if Bush is re-elected.