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 In Utah, a hospital has been forced to change the way it stocks a
drug critical to treating heart patients after the cost skyrocketed
from $440 to $2,700 a vial.
These are two of the stories a U.S. Senate panel heard on Wednesday
at a hearing to explore why certain off-patent prescription
medicines sold by companies like Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Turing
Pharmaceuticals have shot up after they acquired the rights to the
drugs.
The committee also mentioned dramatic price hikes by Rodelis
Therapeutics and Retrophin Inc.
The Senate's Special Committee on Aging announced last month it was
launching an investigation into drug pricing and the role mergers
and acquisitions may be playing in price hikes.
The committee is reviewing price increases for two Valeant heart
drugs, Isuprel and Nitropress, and Turing's price increase on
Daraprim, used to treat toxoplasmosis, a serious disease that
affects AIDS patients and pregnant women and their babies.
Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, the panel's ranking Democrat,
said there is a difference between rewarding innovation and price
gouging, noting that the older drugs in question were not developed
by the companies selling them.
"If this is just greed, we have a duty to figure out how to protect
patients who need these medicines," she said.
Drug pricing has come under wider scrutiny in the last few months,
not only from U.S. lawmakers, but also from U.S. prosecutors and
Democratic presidential candidates.
A different congressional committee is investigating the high U.S.
prices of innovative new branded medicines as well.
Valeant is facing probes from U.S. prosecutors over prices,
distribution and prescription assistance programs, while Turing is
under investigation by the New York state attorney general for
antitrust concerns.
The increased scrutiny over high U.S. drug prices has also taken a
toll on the industry's stocks.
"Let the word go out to investors ... we're paying attention to this
practice," McCaskill said.
Wednesday is the first in what is expected to be a series of
hearings on drug price spikes that will pick up again in 2016.
"I certainly intend to call the CEOs of the four firms that we are
focused on thus far," said Committee Chairwoman Senator Susan
Collins, a Maine Republican, adding that the committee's findings
may also be incorporated into an FDA reform bill next year.
Valeant said it was cooperating with the committee, including
providing requested documents.
"Valeant markets more than 200 prescription drugs ... so broad
conclusions about the company's pricing cannot be drawn from any one
drug or set of drugs," spokeswoman Laurie Little said in an emailed
statement.
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McCaskill said Senate research found that "dramatic price hikes are
seemingly business as usual for Valeant."
Collins added that "the companies we're investigating look more like
hedge funds than they do traditional pharmaceutical companies," and
called the price hikes egregious and offensive.
Nancy Retzlaff, the chief commercial officer for Turing
Pharmaceuticals, said Wednesday that "no patient will be denied
access to Daraprim."
"Currently more than 60 percent of Daraprim is provided to patients
at a $1 per prescription or less and our assistance programs," she
added.
Wednesday's hearing featured medical professionals who testified
about the impact of price increases on important older generic
medicines.
Erin Fox, a director at the University of Utah Health Care, said the
hospital is struggling to cope with Valeant's price increases.
"If we continued to purchase the same amount of each drug, it would
cost our organization just over $1.6 million more for isoproterenol
and approximately $290,000 more for nitroprusside compared to what
we paid the previous year," Fox said, using the chemical names of
the Valeant heart drugs.
Dr. David Kimberlin of the University of Alabama, Birmingham, who
treats infants that have contracted toxoplasmosis from their
mothers, said a course of Daraprim treatment for a baby had been
about $1,200. Since the Turing price hike it is "no less than
$69,000."
He said a liquid formulation needed for babies had become difficult
to obtain due to Turing distribution practices.
"Babies' lives literally hang in the balance here," he told the
committee.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington, additional reporting by
Bill Berkrot in New York; Editing by Alan Crosby)
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