This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

OK, so copaxone is suing two pharmaceuticals to keep them from developing a generic copaxone. The trial is set for Sept 7 in New York. I live in Oregon but I'm wondering about a protest, picket line in front of the courthouse if the case actually goes forward. In my experience as an attorney these things matter.
Also, does anyone know about any amicus briefs filed on behalf of patients? I will try to check that out...Anyone interested in using this trial as a focal point for our efforts to get affordable medications? Copaxone is now about 4,000/month and when you get medicare.....
FORGET ABOUT IT!

This is music to my ears..
Every month I pay around $1300 for copaxone, and it is not covered by insurance... So, the day when I can buy the cheap version will be a national holiday for me.

Renee, I just happened to spend quite a bit of time this week in a semi-fruitless search for MS med pricing info, until... I finally came across a great blog article where the writer had just done a comparison of all the meds for me!
http://www.brassandivory.org/2011/03/ri ... fying.html

Here's a link to the Bloomberg article that got her blogging about med prices:
Novartis’s $48,000 Pill Spurs U.S. Price Increases for Older MS Treatments
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-2 ... drugs.html

She had even put together a chart of prices and their increases since Sept that I don't think I can paste in here quickly, but I invite someone else to do it (I think it's a picture).

March 2011 prices per year (approximate):
Copaxone - $45,140
Rebif - $39,980
Avonex - $36,860
Betaseron - $34,980
Gilenya - $48,600

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Dx'd with MS & HNPP (hereditary peripheral neuropathy) 7/03 but must have had MS for 30 yrs before that. I've never taken meds for MS or MS symptoms except 1 yr experiment on LDN. (I found diet, exercise, sleep, humor, music help me the most.)

In a properly functioning economy competition would drive prices down but now we live in in age of corporate statism that is no longer the case.

Just shows what a racket the whole pharmaceutical industry is.

Before insurance, my copaxone amount is like $3700 - all of my other meds are quite affordable. If I didn't have "extra help" (ie Medicaid) with my Medicare, I'd be paying $800 per month for it.

Then again, I'm going to be going off of it soon, on to Tysabri, and while the drug is more affordable, I'm told that the price for insfusing is much more expensive. And I'm not sure where there are infusion centers near me other than 25 miles away in st. Louis.

Copaxone is not available in the Middle East, so i buy my copaxone from madrid and have it delivered to me by a dear dear friend who happens to travel to Abu Dhabi every 3 months.

But, could i be paying much less in Madrid? From what I read in the forum, the US prices are higher.

thanks for all the info especially about prices. I will probably stop taking the copaxone or maybe only take it a few times a week. There was a study presented at the annual neurological society gathering last year that compared copaxone taken twice a week with copaxone daily. the patients in the study showed no difference in progression. I showed this study to my neuo who blurted out 'how did you get this? this isn't out yet!?"

In any event, teva cannot have a patent on this drug forever. It just doesn't work that way, even in our capitalist society. As long as medicine is classified as property and pharmaceuticals as private corporations selling their property in a free market society, we have no hope for reasonable pricing.

Teva is now making 3 billion a year on copaxone alone. I think they have recovered their initial costs of research and then made a good profit. It is time for the government to step in with laws on patent regulation, price regulation for medicine, etc.
I'm wondering if the single payer health plan would have solved these problems. I assume it would have.
Oh well, now all I really have to deal with is family, friends, neuros, etc. blaming my ms on my refusal to pay 1,ooo.00/month for copaxone..(I have medicare and a part d supplement)
Decisions are hard to make but if I pay out 12,000.00 a year what will be left for the other stuff I have like eye glasses, teeth, breasts, uterus, bone issues, and what about my spouse, what money will be left to pay for his medical issues?
OK, enough of all this its just that the neuro always gets to me when she basically tells me I will be hospitalized without copaxone. Who do these people work for?
Thanks for all the feedback,
Renee

Hi Renee,
Would you happen to have a link to that study from last year's meeting? I missed that. I decided, on my own, to go every other day June 25, 2010. Then I went to three days a week this past March. It wasn't the cost so much as bad lipoatrophy and at some point I was going to run out of injectable areas. My skin is much better now becuz it gets a lot more rest. If I didn't have insurance, I'd have gone eod years ago.
I've been taking Copaxone since I was diagnosed 5 years ago. I haven't progressed and a lot of symptons have gotten better. I've also had ccsvi treatment so who knows what's happening. But things seem to be working so I'll stick to three days a week.
I don't understand why the insurance companies and Medicare let the pharmaceutical companies keep raising the prices so drastically and for no reason. It doesn't make any sense.

Hi,
I got the link from "this is ms" originally but I will look for it again.
BTW, Teva is now running their own 3 times a week study but they have increased the dosage to 40 (instead of 20). that makes sense for keeping the price up.
I'll look up the links...very unorganized these days.

Hellz yes, frikkin-a Copaxone (or whatever your licensing manufacturer is). You want to help people? Then submit yourself to actual market forces, because the consumer ALWAYS COMES OUT ON TOP

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*profile pic drawn by my wife, Mira Arntzen*

Thanks Renee. I'll look also and post the link if I find it.
I don't know much about patents but I was assuming Copaxones new double-dose formulation 3 times a week (if it's approved) would extend their patent since it's a new formulation?

Intellectual property is bogus. Here, I'll show you a form of piracy where I steal your car. But you still have your car.

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*profile pic drawn by my wife, Mira Arntzen*