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For millions of Americans suffering from chronic and debilitating migraines – often accompanied by headaches accompanied by vomiting, dizziness and sensitivity to sound and smells – a new class of emerging drugs aimed at preventing migraines could change the mood. given.
Space pharmaceutical companies, on the other hand, have a lucrative new market that is opening up. And since the new drugs are approved the same year and belong to the same class of drugs, targeting a particular neurotransmitter related to migraine, the competition should be fierce.
Yet the three drugs approved so far, the last being Eli Lilly & Co
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The tie, Thursday, has an identical price: $ 6,900 a year.
This figure, the so-called "list price", tells only part of the story. The new drugs are considered largely interchangeable, so the price will remain high, thanks to discounts and rebates widely used in the US pharmaceutical industry.
Related: New migraine medications are promising – and $ 8,500
Pharmacists also use other tools, such as programs offering free access to patients.
Eli Lilly, for example, plans to launch a program that will provide up to one year of equality for people with commercial health insurance at no additional cost. The savings card can then be used while the individual's doctor is working to obtain authorization of the drug from the health insurer, said MarketWatch Wei-Li Shao, vice president of the neuroscience division of the society.
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Ajovy, who was approved by the FDA last week, and Amgen
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and Novartis AG
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Aimovig, approved in May, also has similar programs.
"The overall goal is to give the system time to determine equality coverage, while ensuring that patients do not have to wait because they have waited long enough," said Shao.
Lily: The FDA approves the migraine drug Teva and Novartis, Amgen's anti-migraine drug approved in the United States.
According to the American Headache Society and American Migraine Foundation, migraine affects about 38 million people and about three to seven million of them suffer from chronic migraines, which means that they have on average 15 days or more of headaches a month. Migraine and chronic migraine affect women more often than men.
Although there are migraine therapies, few have been developed specifically for the disease. Medications for high blood pressure and epilepsy, for example, have been shown to be effective.
The new drugs, named after the peptide linked to the gene for calcitonin, a neurotransmitter, are on the other hand more expensive, at $ 6,900 a year. Nevertheless, the price is lower than previous projections of $ 8,500 and over. Allergan
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Botox, also used as a migraine treatment, is also offered at a similar price.
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, an independent non-profit organization, expects Amgen and Teva's net drug prices to rise to around $ 5,000. after discounts and rebates, which corresponds to their benefits for people who have not found success with other therapies, wrote David Whitrap, vice president of communication and outreach at the institute in an email to MarketWatch.
But larger reductions may be needed to compete with other companies. Mr. Ajovy, for example, will need a net price reduction "given Amgen's market advantage," says Ami Fadia, an analyst at Leerink Partners.
Price differences will be significant because doctors "generally believe that Amgen, Teva and Lilly's medicines are all comparable in effectiveness and that payers have not been particularly inclined to contract Amgen with approval from Teva and Lilly ".
However, their high prices relative to other options, as well as questions about how these medications work over the long term and their potential side effects, help health insurers use "prior authorization". provide coverage for drugs.
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For example, a plan requires patients to be diagnosed with four to four days of migraine per month, consult a neurologist or a pain specialist, and have failed at least two other medications.
Novartis shares rose 19% over the last three months, while Teva shares fell 9%, Amgen shares up 20.7% and Eli Lilly shares up 26.2% . The S & P 500
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jumped 8.3% over this period and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
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increased by almost 10%.
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