Posted on 11/09/2005 8:59:15 PM PST by neverdem
Roche, whose drug Tamiflu is in great demand as a preparation for a possible influenza pandemic, is not the only company reaping a financial windfall from a treatment for a contagious disease. And in this case, the health threat is not merely a potential one.
ViroPharma, a formerly struggling biotechnology company, sells Vancocin, the only drug approved to treat Clostridium difficile, a bacterium that already kills thousands of people a year in this country and is apparently becoming more common and more deadly.
The life-saving drug has turned out to be a financial lifesaver for ViroPharma which, almost by serendipity, acquired the American rights to Vancocin last November. Since then, in response to rising demand, the company has increased the price of the drug - its only product - three times by a total of 80 percent, to about $800 for a course of treatment.
With Vancocin sales expected to more than double this year to $120 million, ViroPharma, based in Exton, Pa., is profitable for the first time in its 11-year history. Its stock price is up 14-fold since reaching a 52-week low in April. On Monday, it rose nearly 15 percent, after the company announced higher-than-expected third-quarter profit and raised its estimate for sales of Vancocin this year, then it declined 91 cents yesterday, to $23.19.
But some doctors say the price increases are exploiting growing fears of the bacterium, while placing a burden on patients and those who take care of them. "It's absolutely outrageous," Dr. Daniel M. Musher, an infectious-disease specialist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston, said of the price increases.
ViroPharma executives, as well as some other doctors and Wall Street analysts, defend the price as still relatively low compared with some other antibiotics like Azactam from Elan and Zyvox...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
NOW ya tell me!
Science to ride gravitational waves
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Flagyl is also used for C-Diff; is this an "off-label" use? The article says that Vanc is the only approved treatment for C-Diff.
" "It's absolutely outrageous," Dr. Daniel M. Musher, an infectious-disease specialist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston, said of the price increases."
Yes, a company, after 14 years finds a way to become profitable, and yet, the good doctor still complains.
I wonder if the doctor prefers diseases for which there are no treatments? Keep complaining and that's just what he'll get.......
The Monthly Prescribing Reference, MPR, still has susceptible anaerobic infections as an indication for metronidazole, aka Flagyl. So, it's OK unless there's documented resistance.
doctors complaining about pricing and a company that has not made a profit in 11 years - that is a hot one. Ask those same doctors if they want to look someone in the face and tell them that taking $800 worth of meds will save their life or they can go home and wait.
ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.