Really? Is it a secret? I didn't know and maybe other people who take these medications don't know either.
What are we talking about?
In May of this year, the makers of a widely-used medication in the U.S. and in Europe for rheumatoid arthritis were accused of raising prices in the U.S., but cutting the price overseas.
Apparently, reports say, the makers of the medication exploited patents to keep competitors out of the market while increasing the price of the widely-used injectable medication for rheumatoid arthritis to around $77,000 per year. That's $77,000 for a person to pay for medication that helps them live.
The company, makers of the injectable medication, sought hundreds of patents for one medication-a practice that isn't illegal, but does create barriers to competition. The cost of one patent is prohibitively expensive and time-consuming, but for large manufacturers with an eye on a cash market, the practice is simply protecting the cash flow.
This specific injectable medication is the top seller in the world reaching more than $21B in 2021, but the price makes it inaccessible to many people with the very condition it was created to treat.
Wait, allow me to correct myself. The price of the medication in the U.S. makes the medication less accessible in the U.S. to Americans *redundant on purpose* with rheumatoid arthritis. And to put an even finer point on it: the price of the most prescribed medication for rheumatoid arthritis is completely inaccessible to people without insurance due to the cost. Why? Because the company simultaneously LOWERED prices abroad in order to make the medication more attractive under single-payer systems while they RAISED prices in the U.S. In other words, they raised the price of the medication because they can. Because insurers will pay it. Because there is no competition. Because they kept out the competition with a mountain of patents. Because they can.
In the article about patent abuse we can read excerpts of the testimony from the company's CEO, the patent practices, the lawsuits, the markets and more, but the word patient does not appear even one time. The phrase person with rheumatoid arthritis does not appear even one time.
Should the discussion, outrage, congressional hearings, and articles be solely about patent abuse?
If you add just an one vowel, the discussion could be about patient abuse.
Because isn't it abuse to force people day after day, month after month, year after year to continually deal with a painful chronic condition, and then also deal with painful insurance provisions and navigations squeezing every last dime of profit into the wallets of big pharma?
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