b" Wordw w w. w m i m u t u a l . c o mBIG PHARMA'SR&DLine is a TOTAL CROCK!By David Leo, I a couple months agowilling to allow insurance companies to pay that In case you missed it, President of our friends at the Food and Drug Administration$2.1 million price tag over a five-year period in WMIMutual (FDA) approved the most expensive prescrip- $425,000 installmentsand they are even will-Insurance Company tion drug ever. The drug is called Zolgensma, anding to give a partial rebate if the treatment doesnt & WMI TPA its manufactured by the Swiss drugmaker No- work. Phewfor a minute there, I thought they vartis. The medicine is used to treat an inheritedwere money-grubbing opportunists!rare and usually fatal disorder in babies calledFor the time being, Novartis has earned the spinal muscular atrophy, a horrendous diseasehonor of selling the most expensive prescrip-that destroys muscle control. An amazing medicaltion drug in history, but that doesnt mean they and genetic advancement to be sure. The onlyare as much the outlier as you may think. There problem is the costa whopping $2.1 millionare several prescription drugs that cost hundreds per course of treatment! of thousands of dollars per year (e.g., Spinraza, Yep, you read that right. The price for this drugLuxterna and Myalept), and there are a multitude to treat one disease-stricken child is more than 35of prescription drugs that cost tens of thousands times the annual median household income in theof dollars per year. Medications that cost as much United States! ~ G A S P! ~ Before you fall offas a new luxury car (each year) include drugs your chair in disbelief, rest assured that Novartislike Avonex and Tysabri for MS; Harvoni and is not just in it for the money. In fact, as a signSovaldi for hepatitis C; Enbrel for rheumatoid of their noble goodwill and altruism, they arearthritis; and my personal favorite, HP Acthar Graph 1 Gel, which has been around since 1952 and is used to treat infantile spasms. The reason HP Acthar Gel is my favorite is because in 2001, a vial of the drug cost about $40. It now costs more than $40,000 per vial, due in large part to an overnight spike (and I mean over-night) in 2007 from $1,650 to more than $23,000 when it was granted preferential orphan drug designation by the FDA.According to a new study by The Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing, the average American spends $1,200 per year out-of-pocket while the large20 www.wpma.com / Autumn 2019"