Preemie birth preventive spikes from $10 to $1,500
By Mike Stobbe, AP Medical Writer
ATLANTA – The price of preventing preterm labor is about to go through the roof.
A drug for high-risk pregnant women has cost about $10 to $20 per injection. Next week, the price shoots up to $1,500 a dose, meaning the total cost during a pregnancy could be as much as $30,000.
That's because the drug, a form of progesterone given as a weekly shot, has been made cheaply for years, mixed in special pharmacies that custom-compound treatments that are not federally approved.
But recently, KV Pharmaceutical of suburban St.Louis won government approval to exclusively sell the drug, known as Makena (Mah-KEE'-Nah). The March of Dimes and many obstetricians supported that because it means quality will be more consistent and it will be easier to get.
None of them anticipated the dramatic price hike, though — especially since most of the cost for development and research was shouldered by others in the past.
"That's a huge increase for something that can't be costing them that much to make. For crying out loud, this is about making money," said Dr. Roger Snow, deputy medical director for Massachusetts' Medicaid program.
To repeat, folks: corporations don't give a damn about you and me. Corporations are only concerned and interested in their own selfish, greedy success. In this case, their excess.
We don't have control of our government, because of lobbying and our campaign system so the corporations are in control.
So what're you gonna' do about it?
Oh, and are you still against that Health Care Reform Act of 2010 and the president who pushed it through for us?
Link to original post: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110310/ap_on_he_me/us_med_premature_birth_drug
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
Both education and health care have been successful and closing the curtain around their malpractice by keeping the media out.
Their method? Crying patient, student privacy. When I was in the media, it was hard to cover health care...but now cameras can't seem to get into schools.
Or else the TV people can't be bothered. What you have written is important to publicize. AND PERSONALIZE.
Thats not east when newspapers have gutted their staffs and TV stations are satisfied to fill time between commercials with murders.
This is a political issue and only the Republicans seem to have America's ear. Don't expect government to bring health care back to reality. Not in THIS political environment. The babies will simply and quietly die.
KV Pharmaceuticals is a pretty dodgy firm. The former CEO plead guilty to two counts today in St. Louis for quality control violations and will spend a month on government sponsored vacation. Apparently, they shipped oversize (and overstrength) morphine sulfate tabs. Why they got this approval for Makena is beyond me....
That said, they have a program for dispensing (effective March 14, I think). The program makes it seem like end user cost will be $20 or less (though I have no idea how much insurance will be billed if applicable). I have no idea if the yahoo post helped drive the program, but it seems like the price will not go completely crazy.
The other side of the state likes your blog!!!
I couldn't agree more, Radioman, on a few of your points--about education and health care keeping media out, about the media acquiescing and about personalizing the health care issues so we get it changed in our favor instead of the corporations.
We'll have to keep pushing and pushing hard. What we need is good, true, strong and effective campaign finance reform so we can get and keep lobbyist's money--I mean them and their corporate bribes and purchases of our representatives--out of our government.
Good luck to us, right?
Thanks for the note and information, A.cow. I didn't know people on the other side of the state also tuned in. Great to know! Truly.
have a great weekend,
mr
Giving a company a government-sponsored monopoly on an already existing drug is not free-market capitalism. I suppose it is crony capitalism, but that's only superficially related to actual capitalism.
Maybe not true, free-market capitalism but still, sadly, frustratingly and unfairly, Capitalism nonetheless.
Post a Comment