lawmakers call on nih to reduce price of cancer drug by floyd arthur (ppt)
TRANSCRIPT
Lawmakers Call on NIH to Reduce Price of Cancer Drug
By Floyd Arthur
In a move that is becoming more common as drug prices in the United States continue
to soar, a group of Democratic lawmakers is urging the National Institute of Health and
Department of Health and Human Services to hold public hearings into the cost of a
recently introduced cancer drug. In a letter to and NIH Director Francis Collins and
HHS director Sylvia Burwell, the legislators called on the agencies to revoke the patent
on the prostate cancer drug enzalutamide (Xtandi) and make it available at a lower price.
Xtandi is marketed in the United states by San Francisco-based Medivation Inc. and the
Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma Inc. Medivation’s stock price
dropped 6 percent after the letter was made public last week.
The letter was signed by presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders,Texas Democrat
Rep. Lloyd Doggett and Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont.
Cancer Drug Was Developed with Public Funds
Xtandi was developed with the help of research conducted at the University of California
Los Angeles, which is supported by taxpayer funded grants. “Under current law, NIH
can take this step if federal funds supported a drug's development and the company is
selling it at an unreasonably high price," the lawmakers said.
Xtandi sells for $129,000 for a one year supply in the United States. The price for the
same quantity of the drug in Canada is $39,000. In Sweden and Japan it is $30,000 per year.
"When Americans pay for research that results in a pharmaceutical, that drug should be
available at a reasonable price," said Doggett. "An unaffordable drug is 100 percent
ineffective.” Doggett is co-chair of the House Democratic Caucus Prescription Drug Task Force.
Astellas responded to the letter by saying that most patients with private insurance or
Medicare pay just $25 per month for the prostate cancer drug; insurers or Medicare pick
up the rest. Additionally, Astellas provides the drug free of charge to those who have no
insurance and a combined family income of $100,000 or less.
Drugmakers Under Fire as Drug Prices Soar
Medivation and Astellas are not the first drugmakers to find themselves in Congress’
crosshairs this year. On March 25, J. Michael Pearson, outgoing CEO of Montreal-
based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., was subpoenaed to appear before the
Senate Aging Committee to answer questions about Valeant’s pricing practices. Under
particular scrutiny are two heart medications, Isuprel and Nitropress (nitroprusside),
which Valeant acquired in 2015. The company subsequently raised the price of the drugs
by 525 percent and 212 percent respectively.
Both Isuprel and Nitropress have been available for years. In 2012, the price of both
drugs was $44.50 per vial. In December, 2013, the drugmaker Marathon
Pharmaceuticals LLC acquired the rights to both drugs and raised the prices to about
$218 each, a hike of nearly 400 percent.
In 2015, Valeant raised the price of the drugs to $1,346.62 and $805.60 respectively.
This and other cases of drugmakers buying up the rights to old drugs and then raising
the prices excessively have been the subject of multiple Congressional hearings since
2014. The issue came to a head last year when Turing Pharmaceuticals, headed by then-
CEO Martin Shkreli, acquired the drug Daraprim. Turing immediately raised the price
of the drug, which is used to treat toxoplasmosis, 5000 percent, from $13.50 to $750 a pill.
Shkreli was vilified in the press and social media, and was later forced to appear before
the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Shkreli, who is now under
federal indictment for securities fraud, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-
incrimination and refused to testify.
Pearson will appear before the Senate Aging Committee on April 27, 2016.
