As many of us have expressed disgust about the $1.6B that UCLA has had regarding royalties, licensing and patents for Xtandi this article gives a look into the efforts that have been made to bring in a "generic". When the global revenue is $5B a year and $2.5B is from the US, does a "march-in order" make sense to help bring down the annual cost of $199,000?
Jaw-dropping to say the least!
This topic has been covered ad nauseum. It's unfortunate that people have been led astray on the intent of "March in Rights". The patent on Xtandi expires in 2027, the government will need to wait until then for generic versions, just like Zytiga.
But even generic Zytiga can be crazy priced. My BCBS requires me to use CVS exclusively. Well, CVS must have some sort of major pharma kickback going on because last January (2023) CVS said I need to pay all my deductible and out of pocket maximums just for my first month of generic abiraterone acetate/Zytiga. They claimed it was a $20,000 a month medication even as a generic so even with hours of calls day after day (it is less than $200 at Cuban's Cost Plus and also Costco), I still had to cough up $7500 towards my first month's supply. I even convinced a CVS manager to look up CostPlus pricing on it while were on the phone. She apologized, said I was right, but I still needed to cough up $7,500 if I wanted my $200 medication.
As an fyi, I max out my deductables/out of pocket maxes every year with this cancer so before anyone says I should have just bought the generic, that would have been about $2,000 extra on top of my maxed out insurance payments.
I did plead again this January and told CVS I don't have the $7500 in cash to pay right now for their AA. I told them either they give me a better deal or they will kill me. Lo and behold, now they suddenly say it will only cost me $5 a month. Bastards.
CVS specialty is my pharmacy as well. It seems January is the hump. I'm supposed to have a max deductible of 1600, then 50 a prescription until meet annual out of pocket (Dr + pharma) if $3300. January I was told my out of pocket was $3400, I said that was impossible since my total plan oop is $3300. It is then revealed I needed to sigh up with this program that that forces you to enroll in the XTANDI co pay assistance program. Once I did that, then everything was operating as normal. Starting in February my copay now is zero for the year
That sounds very familiar, and painful. What a hospital/insurance/pharmaceutical industrial complex we have to support!
And it's only going to get worse. The ACA has a whole shift to evidence based medicine, evidence based practice, shared decision making model, collaboration between the AHRQ, BIG pharma and BIG healthcare = industrialized healthcare complex.
Look at AMGA.org and read through all of their tabs and drop downs. Look at their healthcare providers and their "corporate" partners.
If this topic has been covered ad nauseum then why is it not resolved? I learned while living in UK and then France that US citizens subsidize pharmaceuticals for European citizens - sadly without our vote. I suppose nothing is done because we the citizens, we the patients, don't make much of a fuss. UCLA could certainly release the patent for the good of men.
ad nauseum on this site. Why is the good of men not serviced when the proceeds of Xtandi sales supports further research? I'm on Xtandi mono therapy because Pfizer funded the EMBARK trial.UCLA is able to fund additional research for the good of men with the proceeds from the license agreement. I also wonder how many men actually pay 14k a month for Xtandi. I don't. My insurance reduces my out of pocket to the equivalent of $125 a month. Clearly not $199k.
So you pay $125 a month, Ed pays zero. UCLA makes $1B+; who paid all that profit? And was this not funded by taxpayers?
Why are you hung up on the taxpayer funding ? Riddle me this, how much of the research into the discovery of enzalutimide was funded by the taxpayer? Has the government received a handsome return via taxes on the 1.6 billion on license fees paid to UCLA?The remainder of the money spent to get it to market and expanded use was funded by the Pfizer and Astellas.
I'm really at a loss trying understand your complaint...the drug is life saving and it cost a lot of money....much like many other patented drugs.
Taxes, if any on royalties, isn't much since UCLA had little to no cost of spending the time and money to develop the technology.
Pfizer and Astellas did not use their labs and research, UCLA did the research and Medivation took it to FDA approval (raising $440M in public offerings over the life of the company).
In September 2016 Pfizer bought Medivation for $14.3B ran the clinical trials and has reaped MASSIVE profits since. It's the market cap that made the expense so massive. It's not that Pfizer/ Astellas created a lifesaving drug, they bought an extremely PROFITABLE drug.
Much of the concern around drugs like this is that people not covered by Medicare/ Medicade can not get access to the drug because of costs. BUT when the government is footing the bill they have no problem raping the government to keep their massive profits rolling in.
That's why BIG BUSINESS is in bed with the US Government with lobbyists everywhere. The taxpayers pick up the bill.
I think you underestimate the amount of taxes paid on the 1.6 billion of royalties. Your nit picking about which labs were used, who performed the clinical trials to get it to market, etc. EMBARK was funded by Pfizer, as many other clinical trials.
What taxes were generated via the sale of enzalutimide to Pfizer\Astellas? That wasn't a tax free event. Further taxes have since been generated by sales of Pfizer, taxes on dividends and salaries paid to the people supporting this drug. There is a huge sum of money flowing to the US government.
It's a shame people don't understand how the tax system works. I also doubt anyone pays the 199k per year. Most pay a few k at most.
One of my many life lessons is when a person asks questions and then adds commentaries, the question is not their intent. So, for me, chat another time.
Hmmm...no different than your first response.I guess you have more life lessons to learn.
Xtandi has a patient assistance program that is not difficult to qualify for, I don’t pay anything for Xtandi.
Ed
I applied online for patient assistance program and within 2 min I had debit card from xtandi and I do not pay anything for xtandi : xtandi.com/financial-support
generic is available through pharmacies overseas. I purchased mine through pharmacy in India
Nice! What's the cost? How have you responded to the drug?
cost was 385 per month
i was on it 18 months. Last 12 combined with eligard. Dr Bryce noted complete response in terms on non detectable psa and completely negative psma scan at nine months. Treatment duscontinued at 12 months. Now four months out. Psa and testosterone remain undetectable. So it worked well
I had this response using one capsule per day. Tried moving to two but side effects were too much and it made bo difference in response.
Cost i dent you was fir one month full dosing (4 caps per day). These costs were in 2022 and 2023
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