Bernie
Sanders, U.S. Rep Cummings seek info on Ariad leukemia
drug
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[October 21, 2016]
By Ankur Banerjee
(Reuters) - Former Democratic presidential
candidate Bernie Sanders and U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings issued
a letter on Thursday seeking information from Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc
on the "staggering" price increases for the company's leukemia drug.
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The letter was sent a week after Senator Sanders tweeted that: "Drug
corporations' greed is unbelievable. Ariad raised the price of a
leukemia drug to almost $199,000 a year."
Ariad's drug, Iclusig, was approved in December 2012 and is used to
treat chronic myeloid leukemia, a type of bone marrow cancer in
which marrow makes too many white blood cells.
Iclusig generated sales of $65.3 million in the second quarter.
The company's pricing strategy came under scrutiny after TheStreet
reported this month that the company had raised the price of the
drug. (http://bit.ly/2dcBAmg)
"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
Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, said in the letter.
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Ariad acknowledged the receipt of a Congressional letter from
Representative Cummings and Sanders requesting information and said
it planned to respond to their request.
"Ariad has invested more than $1.3 billion in R&D and accumulated
losses of approximately $1.4 billion since the company was founded,
which have not been recovered," Ariad said in a statement.
The company's shares, which fell as much as 7 percent on Thursday,
recovered most of the losses to close at $10.78.
Criticism of Ariad comes at a time when Mylan NV is being lambasted
by consumers and lawmakers for raising prices of its lifesaving
EpiPen six-fold to over $600 for a package of two in less than a
decade.
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Mylan said earlier this month it would pay $465 million to settle
questions over whether it underpaid U.S. government healthcare
programs by misclassifying the EpiPen anti-allergy drug delivery
device.
Aggressive drug pricing has come under intense scrutiny after
Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted her intent
to tackle high prices last year.
Clinton's tweets have hit shares of Mylan and Valeant
Pharmaceuticals International, whose pricing strategy has been
investigated by U.S. regulators and lawmakers.
Drug companies are already responding to political pressure. Botox
maker Allergan Plc recently committed to keeping price increases
below 10 percent.
(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva
and Don Sebastian)
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