Cost of Revlimid

[Guest guest]

Company Puts a Big Price Tag

On Drug to Treat Blood Disease

By GEETA ANAND

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

December 29, 2005; Page D2

Celgene Corp. said it would price its new medicine for a rare blood

disease at about $54,000 annually, and argued that the drug would

save the health-care system money.

, the company's chief executive, announced the planned

price of the company's new drug, Revlimid, in a conference call with

investors, saying Celgene would charge between $4,500 and $4,700 a

month -- which adds up to between $54,000 and $56,400 annually.

Mr. defended the price in an interview on CNBC, saying

patients with the rare blood disease, myelodysplastic syndrome,

currently require frequent blood transfusions, which are even more

expensive. The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug this

week for a subset of patients with the blood disease, which

frequently leads to cancer.

" We're actually saving the health-care system money for those people

who are taking it, " Mr. said on CNBC.

Mr. has been telling investors for at least the past year

that Celgene plans to price Revlimid much higher than Thalomid, the

medicine the company currently sells for multiple myeloma, a type of

blood cancer. The company prices Thalomid at about $30,000 a year,

according to Stanley. Celgene plans to apply this week for FDA

approval to market Revlimid to treat multiple myeloma.

" On the one hand, the drug is a great drug, but it's going to be very

difficult for many patients to get it, " said Comenzo, a

hematologist at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York

City.

Companies are bringing these drugs to market at ever higher prices,

citing development costs, manufacturing expenses and the high prices

of competing medicines. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and ImClone Systems

Inc. sell the colon-cancer drug Erbitux for $114,000 a year.

Genentech Inc.'s cancer drug, Avastin, is priced at about $50,000

annually.

Celgene didn't return calls seeking comment on pricing. In an

interview with The Wall Street Journal a year ago, Mr. said

Celgene planned to keep raising the price of Thalomid, trying to

bring it closer to a newer, competing drug, Velcade, brought to

market in 2003 by Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. and now costing

about $22,000 for the typical four-month treatment.

Mr. said that the company had priced Thalomid, the brand name

for the decades-old drug, thalidomide, at less than $10,000 a year

when it brought it to market in 1998 because it was expected to be a

treatment for wasting associated with AIDS. Pricing experts had

warned him to keep the price down or AIDS activists would protest,

Mr. said. After new information suggested the drug helped

treat multiple myeloma, Mr. said he felt justified in raising

the price because the drug had gained value -- it appeared to help

cancer patients in addition to those with AIDS.

Thalomid came to market priced at $6 for a 50-milligram pill, and

today the same pill is priced at almost $53, almost nine times what

it cost in 1998. Mr. said in an interview last year that when

Revlimid was approved, he planned to charge as much as Velcade.

On a monthly basis, Revlimid is priced at about the same as Velcade,

according to Sapna Srivastava, biotechnology analyst at

Stanley who covers the company. Dr. Srivastava said Celgene priced

Revlimid much higher than she had expected and so she was predicting

eventual sales in excess of the $1 billion she had previously

estimated.

She said companies had the leeway to price drugs ever higher in

oncology because " no payer wants to be seen as refusing drugs to

patients who are dying. "

But Dr. Comenzo said some insurers are asking his patients to pay a

percentage of the drug price out of pocket and many can't afford

it. " It's going to be very difficult for many people to get it

because of price, " Dr. Comenzo said.

Revlimid is expected to be a vital treatment for the estimated 40,000

to 50,000 patients in the U.S. -- 300,000 world-wide -- with

myelodysplastic syndrome, company officials said. The drug was

specifically approved for the 20% to 30% of these patients who also

have a particular chromosomal abnormality.

Even though the company reported no sign in laboratory studies of the

horrific deformities seen in babies born to mothers who took

thalidomide in Europe in the 1960s, the FDA required Celgene to put a

black-box label on Revlimid because it is structurally similar. Like

Thalomid, Revlimid will be distributed under a carefully controlled

system, requiring patients to take frequent pregnancy tests, among

other things.

Sol Barer, the company's chief operating officer, said in the

conference call yesterday that two-thirds of patients in the Revlimid

trials were able to eliminate the regular blood transfusions that

have been the primary method of treatment for myelodysplastic

syndrome and cost about $60,000 annually per patient.

The Summit, N.J., company's shares rose 5.9% on the news to $60.85,

up $3.37, in 4 p.m. Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The

company this week announced not only that Revlimid had been approved,

but also that Mr. , chief executive for 10 years, would be

stepping down in May. He will be succeeded by Mr. Barer.

[Guest guest]

I recieved a bill from Accredo Drug Health Group for $20, my co pay for non generic drugs. The invoice with my bill, had the cost of $7543.62 for 28 revlimid. I have medcost for health/drugs and medicare part A/B as a secondary ins.

My onc office had someone to call me from an out of network group. They were very rude. They insisted I pay the $475 out of network copay and told me it might take me a month to get my meds in network. I can't remember the name of the company. I got it straightened out in a couple of days.

Accredo was so nice and the pharmacist called and explained reactions etc about the drug, I am sure all of them do this.They were out of Tenn.

I took my revlimid on an empty stomach last night. Maybe its wishful thinking, but my lymph nodes in my neck were more visible and painful this morning.

, I certainly will keep the group posted. Fran Bullock