In August, Amgen raised the cost of its psoriasis drug Otezla by 2.4 percent subsequent to raising the cost of its oncology biologic Mvasi and persistent kidney sickness prescription Parsabiv by 3%, reports Fierce Pharma. Merck correspondingly raised prices on its HPV, chickenpox and MMR immunizations by 11%.
While drugmakers guard their five and six-digit drug costs as reflecting innovative work and continued clinical trial spending, administrators have questions.
In 2019, the late Elijah E. Cummings, Representative from Maryland's seventh district and chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, dispatched an investigation concerning the pricing practices of 12 drug companies that sell the most expensive prescriptions, a request that continues.
In 2021, the Committee held hearings into the cost of AbbVie's Humira, whose price has been raised multiple times. It now costs $2,984 per needle. AbbVie and Janssen Biotech have raised the price of their cancer drug Imbruvica multiple times since 2013; it currently costs $181,529 per year. AbbVie also benefited from the pandemic, making $1.3 billion in the second quarter from COVID-19 test sales.
Reneging on price hikes after the 2017 pledge isn't the only recent medication producer reversal. During the summer of 2020, Pharma joined 1,000 other companies in a "Stop Hate" boycott campaign against Facebook due to the tech giant's alleged refusal to stop hate speech. Now many have implemented a secrecy return to Facebook.
Marketing to Children
The ethics of marketing unhealthy food to children with cartoons, celebrities, and sports heroes has been passionately debated. Marketing medications to children has received less scrutiny.
Singulair/montelukast, a leukotriene inhibitor, has been heavily marketed to children with a cherry-flavored chewable formulation. Marketing included a partnership with Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Peter Vanderkaay, a basketball "skills challenge" for kids aged 9 to 14, and materials distributed through Scholastic and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
A few years ago, Britain's National Health Service published child-friendly leaflets promoting the antipsychotics Zyprexa and Risperdal to children and the ADHD drug Strattera. "Many children, teens, and adolescents need to take medications prescribed by doctors to help them stay well and healthy," states the Zyprexa text amidst sketches of happy kids skating, rollerblading, and playing soccer.
Currently, Novartis has launched comic books featuring superheroes aimed at kids with PROS (PIK3CA-Related Overgrowth Spectrum). The "unbranded" campaign (the advanced medication is unnamed, and information appears as a public service) is running as Novartis initiates pediatric and adult PROS patients for a stage 2 trial to hopefully extend its metastatic breast cancer Piqray for PROS indications.
Most are familiar with aggressive ADHD drug marketing; "Give them the Grape," says an advertisement for grape-flavored Methylin, but fewer realize that GERD medications are advertised for infants. "GERD Can Be a Big Problem for Little Kids," say award-winning advertisements for Prevacid, pathologizing "throwing up."
Regardless of exorbitant pricing or crafty advertising, the pharmaceutical industry should not be given a pass in light of turbulent times.
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