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   DIR Return to: PLEGRIDY (pegylated interferon beta-1a)
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       #Post#: 519--------------------------------------------------
       Plegridy to cost $62,036/year--same as Avonex
       By: agate Date: October 16, 2014, 8:02 pm
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       Excerpted from the Boston Globe, October 4, 2014:
       [quote]Biogen’s new MS drug to cost $62,036 a year
       By Robert Weisman  | GLOBE STAFF
       Cambridge biotech Biogen Idec Inc. said Friday it will charge
       $62,036 per patient for a year’s treatment with its newly
       approved multiple sclerosis drug Plegridy.
       The list price of Plegridy, a new type of injectable drug that
       treats adults with the most common form of MS, is identical to
       that of Biogen Idec’s original injectable, Avonex, which is
       still on the market.
       Plegridy, a longer-lasting drug for patients with
       relapsing-remitting MS, was approved by the Food and Drug
       Administration on Aug. 15 for US sale. Biogen Idec disclosed the
       price Friday before releasing the drug to distributors.
       “We’re pricing for the innovation,” said Biogen Idec spokeswoman
       Kate Niazi-Sai. “But we’re also pricing to make sure patients
       have access to it and the system can support it. That’s a
       balance, and that’s what we’re trying to do here.”
       Drug pricing has become a hot button issue in an era of rising
       health costs.
       ...
       Biogen Idec’s own pill to treat MS, called Tecfidera, costs
       $60,121 a year.
       Plegridy, the latest addition to Biogen Idec’s portfolio of MS
       medicines, also has been approved by the European Commission for
       sale in 28 countries across the Atlantic.
       ...
       Plegridy has the same active ingredient, interferon beta, as
       Avonex. But the company attached a polymer called polyethylene
       glycol, or peg, to Plegridy that increases the exposure of the
       drug, allowing patients to take doses less frequently. While
       Avonex has to be injected into the muscle once a week, Plegridy
       can be taken by injection every two weeks, administered under
       the skin with an auto-injector.
       Biogen Idec hopes to transition many patients over time from
       Avonex and other first-generation interferons, some of which
       have to be injected three times a week, to the longer-lasting
       drug Plegridy. But the company has no plans to discontinue the
       sale of Avonex.[/quote]
       The entire article can be seen here
  HTML http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/10/03/biogen-idec-prices-new-multiple-sclerosis-treatment-per-year/93UacTlTnAnUX709MF9WEJ/story.html.
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