This post is courtesy of PharmaGossip. It details the 11 most expensive drugs in the USA for an annual prescription. Not surprisingly, these are all Orphan drugs and mostly biologicals -- aimed at serious genetics diseases that effect relatively small populations.
The 11 Most Expensive Medicines in America - Medical Billing and Coding Certification .
Without further adieu, I will just list the top 10 drugs in descending order from most to "least" expensive. See the article for more information on what conditions these drugs treat.
- Soliris $409.5 K
- Elaprase $375 K
- Naglazyme $365 K
- Cinryze $350 K
- Folotyn $300 K
- ACTH $300 K
- Myozyme $300 K
- Arcalyst $250 K
- Ceredase/Cerezyme $200 K
- Fabrazyme $200 K
- Aldurazyme $200
As I indicated, all of these conditions are extremely serious. The drugs make life or death differences in many cases and certainly make huge impacts on quality of life for many patients. I'm sure the patients are glad to have the drugs regardless of costs.
It is also evident why Orphan Drugs have become attractive to a struggling pharma industry as relatively big sales and good profits can be made from drugs that treat fairly small patient populations. It was an impetus that caused Sanofi to buy Genzyme (makers of #7, 9, and 10 on the list). It also sells Aldurazyme in partnership with BioMarin (who also makes Nalazyme). You can see that Genzyme has built a very lucrative Orphan franchise.
Based on competitors comments, this field is likely to become more crowded in the coming decade not less.
NOTE: Fierce Biotech reminds us that Vertex's CF drug Kalydeco ($294 K ) approved this week cracks what is now the top 12.
Posted by Bruce Lehr Feb 7th 2012.
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