05 d’abril 2013

Evergreening (2)

The case of Tecfidera deserves a short comment. Imagine a drug for psoriasis, its active ingredient -dimethyl fumarate- modulates the immune system. The drug has been on the german market since the 90's. Right now you can buy this active ingredient at a reasonable price: $56.20 per 1000 grams. Imagine a company that "buys a license" to extend the indication of this active ingredient into multiple sclerosis. The result is a drug recently approved by FDA and sold at a "fair"  price of $54,900 per patient per year (!). With this amount of money we can buy roughly a tonne of dimethyl fumarate per patient per year. Does this make any sense? Is there anybody stopping this madness?

PS. Don't forget my previous post on the same topic.

PS. Why is this information false?. The answer in this post.