Investors love orphan disease companies because they can charge sky-high prices -- Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN_), for example, charges about $500,000 per year for Soliris -- and insurance companies reimburse without much protest. But as the number of orphan disease companies with approved products grow, so too are concerns about a backlash. As the cost of orphan drugs rise, will insurance companies erect more roadblocks in the way of reimbursement?Gosh let's hope so. I think that might be just the people to pull the plug on this bullshit.
Raptor is an interesting test case because Procysbi isn't a new drug, just a long-acting version of Cystagon, approved in 1994 to treat nephropathic cystinosis. Cystagon must be taken on a strict, every six-hour schedule. Procysbi is administered twice a day. Cystagon costs about $10,000 a year. By orphan disease standards, that's almost giving a drug away for free. Raptor intends to charge $250,000 per year for Procysbi. We'll soon find out if insurance companies agree to a 2,400% price hike for a more convenient, but not necessarily more effective, orphan disease therapy.Yes, well Xyrem is basically just a stronger version of alcohol. No chemistry wizards needed.
I do wonder how Jazz expects to keep it's Orphan drug status for Xyrem while seeking to sell it for every other affective illness... Do they already have some other new and vile way to rip off Medicare and Medicaid?
Medicare fraud. That would look good in a headline. Hmmmm.
