Wednesday, April 24, 2013

How the FDA Turned a $10 Treatment into a $1500 Money-Maker for a Sanctioned Drug Company


 How the FDA Turned a $10 Treatment into a $1500 Money-Maker for a Sanctioned Drug Company
by Tony Isaacs

(The Best Years in Life) What's a poor faltering drug company to do when it has been busted for misdeeds, its shareholders are up in arms and its former CEO has been fined, sent to jail and banned from the industry? In the case of KV Pharmaceutical, the answer was to get the FDA to give the company exclusive rights to a common generic drug for expectant mothers and raise the price from $10 per treatment to $1500 - a decision which has outraged doctors, US senators, and even the March of Dimes.

Last year, the FDA made an eyebrow-raising decision to give exclusive rights to the generic drug to KV Pharmaceutical after declaring the drug to be an "orphan drug". As a consequence, low-income mothers and their babies will be put in grave jeopardy and a huge financial burden will be created for the health insurance companies, private citizens, and government programs that have to pay for it.  Read More.

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