Sculptra- Appalling price gouging by Aventis

[Guest guest]

After having just shot off my mouth about price gouging from another

New Fill doctor, today I received info from the office of the Doctor

that did my New Fill treatments. Let me be the first to acknowledge

and eat my words regarding the other doctor. I stand corrected.

It's not the doctor, it's Aventis Pharm. Absolute criminals. They

have played us like a cheap fiddle.

I quote from the nurse at my New Fill Doctor's office:

" Today 8/13/04 we were notified by the new distributor (Besse

Medical) that shipment will begin on the 30th of this month. With

this information we received an order form. (I have included as an

attachment). Never in our wildest imagination did we expect the

horrific increase in price. I have attached a copy of this order

form as proof that we are not gouging anyone for product. The

standard price charged prior was a total of $750 (3 vials of product

and the cost of $400 for administration). The new cost for 3 vials

of product will be $1950.00. "

And a side-note from the Nurse:

I am going to ask all of you to take a quick moment to call Aventis

Pharm. The parent company of Dermik and let them know of your

disapproval of the new price. 1- also the website is

www.sculptra.com.

I will personally be contacting organizations and media such as; Act

Up, POZ magazine, the ADVOCATE, OUT Magazine, PWAC, TWN, HOTspots,

WIRE, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and select congressmen etc… If you have any

suggestions or connections with anyone in the media please let me

know.

I WILL NOT LET THIS HAPPEN WITHOUT A FIGHT! Dermik stood face to face

with the FDA advisory panel and told then " The approval of this

product would assist the HIV community by providing an option at a

lower price than other fillers on the market today. "

We can do more as a group than I can as one.

Thanks

PozHealth members--it's time to roll up our sleeves and start

slugging.

JimS.

Seattle

[Guest guest]

Guys:

Hold your horses. ATAC will have a meeting with Dermik next week. I will report as soon as we finish.

VergelDirector, Program for Wellness Restoration (PoWeR)A non profit 501 © 3 organization.www.powerusa.orgSend an email to PozHealth-subscribe to join our free listserver!Subscribe to our newsletter PoWeRHealthReview by emailing Editor@..."Those who dare to fail miserably, can achieve greatly" Kennedy

[Guest guest]

I'm currently on the phone with Aventis. They claim that Besse Medical

(1) is the one who apparently sets the price. I've asked how

Besse came up with this price?

Aventis claims that the price they charge to wholesalers is set by First

Databank (1). I am inquiring what price they are charging their

wholesaler (who then sells it to a pharmacy and the pharmacy sets their

arbitrary price).

This is the type of obscenity that has led the NY Times to report that

businesses are reeling under healthcare coverage costs. This is bad for

business. We spend 14% of our GDP on healthcare in the US, yet 43+ million

of us are uninsured. This is an obscenity.

I have been referred to ine Chrenko in the trade department of Aventis.

She's got her voice message on so I left a message inquiring as to the

price they are charging for the product. I have inquired as to how it can

be that Aventis appears to have no control (pass the buck strategy) over

the price on the market.

From the old Burroughs Wellcome's first outrageous price for AZT to the

cost of Lipitor, to the killing made on Diflucan by Pfizer (literally) to

the murderous cost of Fuzeon and Abbott's horrific price increase on

Norvir, they are literally destroying heatlhcare in the United States. And

globally, as they work to assure that the rape of free trade includes

provisions that are " TRIPS Plus " that deny poorer countries the right to

obtain much cheaper generics.

I'll write more as I learn more and urge others to make calls.

M.

At 01:40 AM 8/19/2004 +0000, you wrote:

>I quote from the nurse at my New Fill Doctor's office:

>

> " Today 8/13/04 we were notified by the new distributor (Besse

>Medical) that shipment will begin on the 30th of this month. With

>this information we received an order form. (I have included as an

>attachment). Never in our wildest imagination did we expect the

>horrific increase in price. I have attached a copy of this order

>form as proof that we are not gouging anyone for product. The

>standard price charged prior was a total of $750 (3 vials of product

>and the cost of $400 for administration). The new cost for 3 vials

>of product will be $1950.00. "

>

>

>And a side-note from the Nurse:

>I am going to ask all of you to take a quick moment to call Aventis

>Pharm. The parent company of Dermik and let them know of your

>disapproval of the new price. 1- also the website is

>www.sculptra.com.

>

>I will personally be contacting organizations and media such as; Act

>Up, POZ magazine, the ADVOCATE, OUT Magazine, PWAC, TWN, HOTspots,

>WIRE, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and select congressmen etc… If you have any

>suggestions or connections with anyone in the media please let me

>know.

>

>I WILL NOT LET THIS HAPPEN WITHOUT A FIGHT! Dermik stood face to face

>with the FDA advisory panel and told then " The approval of this

>product would assist the HIV community by providing an option at a

>lower price than other fillers on the market today. "

>

>We can do more as a group than I can as one.

>

>Thanks

[Guest guest]

Gang,

I work in the healthcare informatics industry and we track movement of pharmaceuticals from manufacturer (Aventis) through wholesalers (Besse) to the end consumer (hospitals, clinics, doctors offices, etc.). My partner has also been in this business for 18 years and confirmed my answers. Here are some facts:

Aventis can sell their product to wholesalers for whatever price they want. It is not set by anyone else other than Aventis. FirstDatabank is simply a recorder of attributes about drugs (their form, strength, mfr, price). The manufacturer tells FirstDatabank what the "list price" is.

Once Besse buys the drugs they can determine what they want to sell the drug for to the institutions (hospitals, doctors offices, etc.). They may look at the First Databank pricing but they will try to sell the drug for whatever they think they can get for it.

Make no mistake about it. Aventis/Besse are in full control over how much we all pay for this drug.

We as a group need to be all over this!

Regards,

Gene

Re: Sculptra- Appalling price gouging by Aventis

I'm currently on the phone with Aventis. They claim that Besse Medical (1) is the one who apparently sets the price. I've asked how Besse came up with this price?Aventis claims that the price they charge to wholesalers is set by First Databank (1). I am inquiring what price they are charging their wholesaler (who then sells it to a pharmacy and the pharmacy sets their arbitrary price).This is the type of obscenity that has led the NY Times to report that businesses are reeling under healthcare coverage costs. This is bad for business. We spend 14% of our GDP on healthcare in the US, yet 43+ million of us are uninsured. This is an obscenity.I have been referred to ine Chrenko in the trade department of Aventis. She's got her voice message on so I left a message inquiring as to the price they are charging for the product. I have inquired as to how it can be that Aventis appears to have no control (pass the buck strategy) over the price on the market.From the old Burroughs Wellcome's first outrageous price for AZT to the cost of Lipitor, to the killing made on Diflucan by Pfizer (literally) to the murderous cost of Fuzeon and Abbott's horrific price increase on Norvir, they are literally destroying heatlhcare in the United States. And globally, as they work to assure that the rape of free trade includes provisions that are "TRIPS Plus" that deny poorer countries the right to obtain much cheaper generics.I'll write more as I learn more and urge others to make calls. M. At 01:40 AM 8/19/2004 +0000, you wrote:>I quote from the nurse at my New Fill Doctor's office:>>"Today 8/13/04 we were notified by the new distributor (Besse>Medical) that shipment will begin on the 30th of this month. With>this information we received an order form. (I have included as an>attachment). Never in our wildest imagination did we expect the>horrific increase in price. I have attached a copy of this order>form as proof that we are not gouging anyone for product. The>standard price charged prior was a total of $750 (3 vials of product>and the cost of $400 for administration). The new cost for 3 vials>of product will be $1950.00.">>>And a side-note from the Nurse:>I am going to ask all of you to take a quick moment to call Aventis>Pharm. The parent company of Dermik and let them know of your>disapproval of the new price. 1- also the website is>www.sculptra.com.>>I will personally be contacting organizations and media such as; Act>Up, POZ magazine, the ADVOCATE, OUT Magazine, PWAC, TWN, HOTspots,>WIRE, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and select congressmen etc… If you have any>suggestions or connections with anyone in the media please let me>know.>>I WILL NOT LET THIS HAPPEN WITHOUT A FIGHT! Dermik stood face to face>with the FDA advisory panel and told then "The approval of this>product would assist the HIV community by providing an option at a>lower price than other fillers on the market today.">>We can do more as a group than I can as one.>>ThanksWelcome to our PozHealth group!If you received this email from someone who forwarded it to you and would like to join this group, send a blank email to PozHealth-subscribe and you will get an email with intructions to follow. You can chose to receive single emails or a daily digest (collection of emails). You can post pictures, images, attach files and search by keyword old postings in the group.For those of you who are members already and want to switch from single emails to digest or viceversa, visit www.yahoogroups.com, click on PozHealth, then on "edit my membership" and go down to your selection. The list administrator does not process any requests, so this is a do-it-yourself easy process ! :)Thanks for joining. You will learn and share a lot in this group!NOTE: I moderate, approve or disapprove emails before they are posted. Please follow the guidelines shown in the homepage. I will not allow rudeness, sexually explicit material, attacks, and anyone who does not follow the rules. If you are not OK with this, please do not join the group. Forward this email to anyone who may benefit from this information! Thanks!In Health, Vergel (powertx@...)List Founder and Moderator

[Guest guest]

If Aventis is set on price gouging, what's to keep us from doing what we did pre-approval and buying it from Mexico or Europe and taking it to our doctors to be injected? Anyone out there who can share info on how they've done this? Perhaps if we let Aventis know that we can just bypass them entirely they'll be more motivated to price it more reasonably.

What do others think of this?

Jeff in San Diego