HUGE price increase for Rebif.
 

Anyone else notice this? Last month my Rebif cost $1700 for my one month supply. This month it was $2228. :eek: :eek: :eek:

Thank God I have insurance. That is a 31% increase. I'm just so shocked that it could go up that much in a month's time.

Sheesh, Kim. The prices for these old modulating therapys should be going down...not up..:mad: I don't understand how they can get by with this.

It makes me think that more PwMS are turning down these therapies and that's why the price is higher??

copaxone just had a huge swing recently too. Went from 1600 to 23oo. its a shame, its just a shame.

how come Avonex with is LESS strength than Rebif, and ONE shot per week, instead of 3, so it required LESS materials, cost exactly the same as Rebif?? I never understood that.

I think it's all based on the stock market. We talked about this not too long ago on a Copaxone thread.

Doesn't have anything to do with the Stock Market, just 'normal' price increases. Avonex went up a little over $500 since last quarter.:mad:

Thanks Bill. I thought it did after someone from CuraScript, my mail order pharmacy for Copaxone told me that.

I reckon they are just gouging before the patents run out . . . then they'll tell us the drugs don't work that well anyway . . . :cool:

Cherie

Thanks for the laugh this morning, Cherie. It's such a shame. :rolleyes:

rebif cost increase
 

same here! my insurance is paying it too (but needed additional paperwork from the doctor), but i am so appalled! i almost feel like not taking the medicine, i don't want to support some price gouging farma company!! somebody is making big bucks of sick people!! this should be reported (where??), unless they give a good reason for this insane price (over $2000 now a month!!), which I am pretty sure there isn't any, they should be forced to reduce the price drastically!

I think the price increase is awful. Not just a few bucks, but hundreds. I am sure people's Medical Insurance companies will have to make pricing deals or pay the increase.

Avonex and Rebif are recombinant interferons that are produced in cell cultures. Maybe they are running out of the Red Chinese hamster ovaries to make it in.:) Betaseron is a modified interferon beta. It is made by recombinant DNA and purified from bacteria. Copaxone is made from four synthetic amino acids (proteins) in a random chain. Each shot has 22 mgs of G, L, A and T (Glatiramer acetate) with 40 mgs of Mannitol.

Ty and other MS drugs, I haven't a clue how or what they are made of, I never studied them because I never tried them.

I guess the laboratories that make these drugs are having increases of some nature, to cause the increase. I don't know if it's supply and demand, new research costs for other drugs, or the economy in general. I am not that smart, or I would be rich instead of just making ends meet.

Its hard when your insurance company says "you can have 3k in drugs per month." then you use up 2.3k in copaxone! that leaves very little for other meds like muscle relaxers, and anti anxiety pills. I have a healthy bottom line, but I know so many that dont.

When I moved out of the state I retired in, they did this HUGE bump in my co pay, tacked on a deductible, and told me I had to pay a certain percentage because I was a disabled retiree. how sick is that?! Since I am covered by the hubby's insurance, I just whipped out his card, and it was back to the easy copay of next to nothing. I was so angry, and had I been counting on that policy, I would have been eating soup for a week out of the month. Once I move back to the same state I retired from, it matches the husbands policy. Weired huh?

Not sure where that number came from for Copaxone, because I remember seeing it at ~$2700 at least once last year, although I admit I don't look that often.

As for why they are the same price? You aren't paying much for the medicine or the syringe, or the materials they send along with it...you are paying for the years and years of research they put into it. A huge % of the cost of most high dollar meds is in the research it took to produce them, including the clinical trials and such (as well as the payoff to the investors who footed the bill for the research costs).

It is easy to get mad at these companies for trying to make a profit, but the reality is that without the profit motive in place, most of these drugs wouldn't exist. I don't like the high costs any more than anybody else, but until we decide to invest billions more dollars of taxpayer money in medical research, the investors are the ones paying for it, and they deserve to make a profit on the risk they take.

Generics
 

When will there be a generic form? Wouldn't that reduce the price substantially? I agree, these costs should be coming down significantly.

Hi All
Just to put things in perspective. I dug-out my old medical records, They show that the monthly retail price of Avonex was $743.24 in 1999.
I just saw the monthly price of Avonex rise $2,345.16.
That's over a three-fold or 315.5% increase in a ten year period!
- Roy :eek:

:mad: Disgusting.

And now our forward thinking government is trying to change the way the Medicare D formularies are drawn up and not in a good way - they're trying to get Medicare more like the VA - also trying to regulate how you can switch insurance companies once a year if you so desire - you know - when the one you have gets too expensive for the pocketbook - and AARP is supporting all of this - I have a nasty suspicion that all of us and then the baby boomers coming along are going to get ??? - now how do I say it nicely - I know - how about - left to wallow - meanwhile the medical care given to our politicians and their families is going to remain wonderfully in place and costing us !! when we can't afford our own !!!!!!!