Dr. Clif CleavelandIn recent years, consumers have been shocked by steep price increases in prescription drugs such as EpiPen, Naloxone and Daraprim. The latter drug gained notoriety when the company that owns the drug increased the price of a single dose from $15 to $750, where it remains today. Many other pharmaceuticals have stayed below the radar of public scrutiny by posting smaller increases for their companies’ products.
Consider the case of lenalidomide.
Lenalidomide (trade name Revlimid) gained approval from the Food and Drug Administration in 2006 as a new therapy for multiple myeloma, a bone-marrow malignancy. When paired with the steroid dexamethasone, the drug became a trusted weapon in combating this disease. Patients may need to remain on the drug indefinitely. Life expectancies for many patients increased by years. Subsequently, indications for the drug’s use were broadened to include a type of lymphoma and marrow abnormality, myelodysplastic syndrome.
Lenalidomide is derived from thalidomide, a drug that caused severe birth defects in the 1960s.
Each year since 2010, the manufacturer has raised the wholesale acquisition cost of lenalidomide – 6 percent in 2011 to 19.7 percent in 2017, for a yearly average of almost 8 percent. The price of the drug has doubled in that eight-year interval. A sharp rise in price affects consumers, who face co-payments, and insurers, who must raise their premiums.