The price of a thyroid drug it sells to UK patients has soared 6,000% over 10 years
Pharmaceutical firm Concordia International has been accused of raking in tens of millions of dollars from the British healthcare system by overcharging for a life-saving thyroid drug.
Before this year, Concordia International was the only company selling liothyronine in the UK. The medication treats a particular thyroid-hormone deficiency that threatens the lives of many British patients, reported Global News.
“It’s like having every bit of energy sucked out of your body,” said Felicity Hart, a woman from Hartforshire, England whose thyroid was removed in 2010. “If I weren’t taking [liothyronine], within a few weeks I’d be liable to get into a coma.”
Between November 2007 and July 2017, the amount per pack paid by the UK’s National Health Service for the medication rose by 6,000%, from less than five pounds to more than two hundred and fifty. Hart is fortunate that her prescription is still covered; many other British patients have had their support cut off because of the skyrocketing cost.
Tara Riddle, a woman whose liothyronine coverage was terminated last year, has searched online for similar drugs. According to her, she found out this year that manufacturers in other companies like Germany were charging around twenty-five pounds (some $42), compared to nine hundred and twenty-two pounds (around $1,560) in the UK.
Responding to patients’ concerns, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced a provisional finding that Concordia International “abused its dominant position to overcharge the NHS” by hiking the price of liothyronine despite saying that “production costs remained broadly stable.”
A written statement from Concordia International suggested that the price increase was necessary because of compliance costs it had incurred in the UK market over the past 10 years.
“[A] significant investment has been made in this medicine to ensure its continued availability for patients in the UK, to the specifications required by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the UK,” the firm said.
Commenting on the statement, Amir Attaran, a law professor who studies drug pricing at the University of Ottawa, said it “[didn’t] have the slightest bit of credibility.”
“They’re just Martin Shkreli dipped in maple syrup and wearing moose antlers,” he said, referring to an American businessman and former pharma-firm CEO who at one point was known as the “most hated man in America.”
Should the CMA’s provisional finding be upheld, Concordia faces a fine of up to 10% of its annual worldwide turnover. The firm rejected any suggestion that it had infringed competition law, saying that it only acquired the international segment of the company in 2015.
Related stories:
Brand-name drug firms still not abiding by R&D promise: report
Public-research policy urged as solution to high patented-drug prices
Before this year, Concordia International was the only company selling liothyronine in the UK. The medication treats a particular thyroid-hormone deficiency that threatens the lives of many British patients, reported Global News.
“It’s like having every bit of energy sucked out of your body,” said Felicity Hart, a woman from Hartforshire, England whose thyroid was removed in 2010. “If I weren’t taking [liothyronine], within a few weeks I’d be liable to get into a coma.”
Between November 2007 and July 2017, the amount per pack paid by the UK’s National Health Service for the medication rose by 6,000%, from less than five pounds to more than two hundred and fifty. Hart is fortunate that her prescription is still covered; many other British patients have had their support cut off because of the skyrocketing cost.
Tara Riddle, a woman whose liothyronine coverage was terminated last year, has searched online for similar drugs. According to her, she found out this year that manufacturers in other companies like Germany were charging around twenty-five pounds (some $42), compared to nine hundred and twenty-two pounds (around $1,560) in the UK.
Responding to patients’ concerns, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced a provisional finding that Concordia International “abused its dominant position to overcharge the NHS” by hiking the price of liothyronine despite saying that “production costs remained broadly stable.”
A written statement from Concordia International suggested that the price increase was necessary because of compliance costs it had incurred in the UK market over the past 10 years.
“[A] significant investment has been made in this medicine to ensure its continued availability for patients in the UK, to the specifications required by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the UK,” the firm said.
Commenting on the statement, Amir Attaran, a law professor who studies drug pricing at the University of Ottawa, said it “[didn’t] have the slightest bit of credibility.”
“They’re just Martin Shkreli dipped in maple syrup and wearing moose antlers,” he said, referring to an American businessman and former pharma-firm CEO who at one point was known as the “most hated man in America.”
Should the CMA’s provisional finding be upheld, Concordia faces a fine of up to 10% of its annual worldwide turnover. The firm rejected any suggestion that it had infringed competition law, saying that it only acquired the international segment of the company in 2015.
Related stories:
Brand-name drug firms still not abiding by R&D promise: report
Public-research policy urged as solution to high patented-drug prices
