Vumerity’s $88,000 List Price Not What ‘We Had Hoped,’ National MS Society Says
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The National Multiple Sclerosis Society has criticized Biogen for the $88,000 yearly list price it placed on Vumerity (diroximel fumarate), the newly approved oral disease-modifying treatment (DMT) for relapsing multiple sclerosis. That criticism extends to repeated price increases with Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate), Biogen’s similar oral DMT for relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS).
While Biogen and Vumerity were specified, the rising costs of effective therapies for MS and other chronic diseases are drawing ire across the board. A recent study into Medicare Part D payments by MS patients found a 7.2-fold jump in out-of-pocket costs, from $372 to $2,673, in the 10 years covering 2006–16.
Vumerity has shown comparable efficacy to Tecfidera in clinical trials, but with notably fewer gastrointestinal side effects. It was developed by Alkermes in collaboration with Biogen, but Biogen owns worldwide rights to market this newly approved treatment.
Reports suggest that Biogen expects many of those now using Tecfidera, which is set to lose all patent protections by 2028, will choose to move to Vumerity.
“Vumerity is an efficacious and tolerable treatment option for people with relapsing MS, but being priced only $500 lower than the least expensive oral disease modifying treatment, does not show the commitment to affordable access that we had hoped,” Bari Talente, executive vice president for advocacy with the National MS Society (NMSS), said in a press release.
In announcing Vumerity’s price, Biogen and Alkermes specifically noted they “made the decision to launch Vumerity … with the lowest annual WAC [wholesale acquisition cost] price for oral MS disease-modifying therapies” available on the U.S. market.
Older oral DMTs for MS patients are generally lower-priced, and include: Gilenya (fingolimod), approved by the FDA in 2010; Aubagio (teriflunomide), approved in 2012; and Tecfidera, approved in 2013. When Tecfidera was approved, Biogen announced it would cost less than Gilenya, which had a yearly list price of $60,000 per patient in 2013.
But since its launch, Tecfidera’s wholesale price has risen by $40,241, an increase of 73.5%. It entered the market at $54,750 a year, and now carries an annual per-person list price of $94,991, the NMSS reported.
“We know that high wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) prices for MS disease modifying treatments put a heavy burden on people with MS. Too many are forced to take on high out-of-pocket costs, navigate through complex systems, and face varied and unpredictable decisions by public and private payers and pharmacy benefit managers,” Talente said.
“We urge Biogen and Alkermes to publicly commit to keeping price increases lower than the rate of inflation,” she said.
Biogen, to an email request for a response, said it “will work to maximize patient access to VUMERITY through their insurance benefits, including potential value-based agreements with payers based on real-world patient outcomes.”
A recent report based on the study into MS treatment costs, citing the NMSS, noted that when targeted treatments began first winning approvals in the 1990s, their annual list prices were roughly between $8,000 and $11,000. Today, list prices for these DMTs top $80,000 a year, rising even as competition in MS therapies has grown.
“Medications can change lives only if they are accessible — a sevenfold increase in out-of-pocket costs is not accessible,” Talente was quoted as saying in the report.
Vumerity, available as a capsule taken twice daily, is approved to treat relapsing MS forms, including clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), RRMS, and active secondary progressive disease (SPMS).
El Reclusa
Don't like drugs with $88K/yr prices? Remember that at the polls. There are plenty of candidates trying to make this kind of corporate greed a thing of the past.
RonB
No they're not. It's pandering for votes. Once they are elected they do nothing except enrich themselves through graft and Money laundering schemes.
Cindy williams
Let’s put all,of these pharmaceuticals in jail, this is outrages!
Penny S. Sumner
No one can afford that! How do they know this medication works if no MS person can have access to it?
Terry
Yep, one reason as a MEDICARE Part D MS patient I no longer take Tecfidera. It was somewhat affordable with regular insurance...but Medicare Part D...no way. How about allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices like the Cigna’s, UHC’s, and Aetna’s in the private sector?
Then again, one must be aware that any government entity is not that great at price negotiations, and their planning/budget is obviously different from ours. ?https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/the-air-forces-10000-toilet-cover/2018/07/14/c33d325a-85df-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306_story.html
DJ Hartt
MS research is in the doldrums second to Pharma's sheer greed which is condoned by government approval bodies, like the FDA.
Tecfidera/DMF is nothing more than a recycled drug, as are almost all MS drugs, this time in dermatology for psoriasis-Fumaderm (also DMF)-zero innovation and treats the MRI and relapses with little if any effect on stopping conversion from to RRMS to SPMS or stopping long term progression. Hence why it's trials were cancelled in progressive MS.
Now we have a Tecfidera clone (ripoff) with a very slight change in a molecule to improve side effect profile but not efficacy, much like the fingolimod/Gilenya "me too" clones. This way Biogen can have a new patent and continue to gouge the MS patient for even more. NMSS is hypocritical in that it continues to take funding from the ever immoral Pharma.
I think any MS patient would pay anything for something that actually worked and improved their quality of life (ie. stop progression, remyelination and neurorestoration) and not just a recycled or slightly modified non-innovative drug used as a "bandaid solution" to treat relapses and the MRI.
Anonymous
Biogen is losing sales on Avonex, which doctors are quite rightly not prescribing (if avoidable). Biogen never improved Avonex. Doctors have moved away from it due to the horrible side effects/risk of liver damage/necrosis and other tissue damage/need for lifelong blood draws to monitor liver enzymes.
Vumerity sounds awful anyway. Flushing and diarrhea are just two of the side effects that are supposedly milder now.
We need treatments, but we need treatments that are truly tolerable, doable, and affordable. Seems that Vumerity misses on all three.
Teresa Henrich
Maybe we should all stop donating our hard earned dollars re fundraising annual walk for ms golf tournaments etc ..what a farce these drug companies basically are getting rich from the least fortunate who spend every dime they own on hope! So sad for us with ms and so very greedy from biogen.
Linda Fitch
So true, it is a nightmare! They sell you an insurance policy, charge you co insurance, co pays, out of pockets-then when you satisfy all of those they argue that they don’t cover “speciality medications” or that particular one or your doctor didn’t preauthorize in time or your pharmacy didn’t bill correctly... Always an excuse
RonB
No they're not. It's pandering for votes. Once they are elected they do nothing except enrich themselves through graft and Money laundering schemes.
Ron Borsay
This is ridiculous. The whole system is rigged so you can't survive. Any money you do have saved will be gone in just a couple of years. Then what? How do you pay rent or property taxes, utilities on a SSDI check? It's a joke.
Mary K Pancoast
I will be turning 65 and have been on Avonex since 1999. With private insurance it was affordable, but now it doesn't look possible on Medicare and a supplimentary insurance. Does anyone have ideas?