Alberta Health Minister questions U.S. company over drug prices



The health minister of Alberta has apparently claimed to have some hard question for a U.S. company. The questions that he wishes to ask are about the reasons as to why Canadians are expected to pay more for a lifesaving treat that is known  to treat a rare form of cystic fibrosis. However, the company that makes the drugs claims that it has offered a price that is nearly as good, or maybe even better than what the 15 countries where the drug is now reimbursed are having to pay.

A meeting was held in Toronto last Tuesday between Fred Horne, who represented provincial and territorial health minister and Stuart Arbuckle, the chief commercial officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Negotiations, as per Horne, will continue this week with the company as there was no breakthrough in the meeting. "We are extremely disappointed that today's meeting did not result in an agreement to allow the eligible children and adults with CF in Canada to receive this medicine through public reimbursement," Arbuckle said in a statement."People with CF are still waiting for access to Kalydeco, and this process is taking much longer than they expect and deserve."

Kalydceo is basically helpful for patients suffering from the fatal genetic disease, and costs nearly $300, 000 a year per patient in Canada. Negotiations have been continuing between Alberta and Vertex since a year to lower the drug’s priced so that it can be covered by Medicare.

 "We wanted to know why should Canadian patients be expected to pay a higher price for this drug than U.S. patients? Why is Vertex funding co-payments for patients that have this drug covered by their private drug plan, but yet they won't extend the same coverage to Canadians who don't have any private health coverage?" Horne said.


Comments

There are 0 comments on this post

Leave A Comment