WASHINGTON — A powerful Senate Democrat is asking Pfizer to explain why it hiked the price of its nerve pain drug, Lyrica. And if Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has his way, more companies will soon be asked to account for their decisions to raise prices.
A bottle of 90 Lyrica pills costs over $650 before rebates and discounts. In 2005, it cost $150, according to Elsevier’s Gold Standard Drug Database.
“The cost of Pfizer’s drug, Lyrica, has grown tremendously over the past several years,” Wyden wrote in a letter sent to Pfizer Tuesday evening, which was first shared with STAT. “In 2016 alone, over 850,000 Medicare beneficiaries were prescribed Lyrica resulting in $2.1 billion Medicare spending. The main cause of this increase has been Pfizer’s consistent and egregious price increases.”
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I support Senator Wyden’s bill STRIKE – It is necessary to combat excessive profit especially in pain medications…maybe then we wouldn’t have an opiod crisis.
I need the Lyrica,but I cant afford it. I need insulin too but prices are getting ridiculous. The elderly cant afford to live, so I guess its much easier to die. Why doesn’t Washington see this. Only the rich can afford to live.
Pfizer marketed Lyrica as an “alternative” to opioid pain medications. Lyrica did little to relieve pain, caused serious side effects, and postponed the actual treatment of pain. They mounted a clever and deceptive marketing campaign to tie in with Americas Heroin and Fentanyl deaths. They blamed patietns with chronic pain for our nations opioid epidemic ion order to market more Lyrica. Of course when patients reported side effect or untreated pain, they were ignored or encouraged to stay on Lyrica. Because Lyrica was not an opioid physicians were encouraged to prescribe it, even when it did not work. In Post Science America, Industry insiders at the FDA helped sell Lyrica too.
What we have here is a Criminal Conspiracy to market this drug, which is now being abused. The number of overdoses and deaths involving lyrica are nto being reported. Pfizer in collusion with FDA officials pushed this drug on millions of medicare recipients and people with chronic pain. The so called opiate epidemic was a great marketing campaign.
Pfizer Drugs is another Pharma rip off. Especially with this Lyrica drug; I was prescribed it over nine years ago. I am one of the several different individuals whose use of this drug, made me very ill. I don’t know if I am allergic to the drug, or have a sensitivity to it. The outcome of my using this drug was not a pleasant experience.
Over the years I have spoken with countless individuals who also had very negative results with Lyrica. I researched it in my professional organization’s journal; there were a number of different outcomes for the efficacy of this drug. The conclusion of the specific article, did not recommend the use of Lyrica for anyone, back then. I am personally able to testify to this conclusion; as the several others who had the same outcome, as myself.
Plus, I only paid a relatively small fee for this drug; I realize that the prices of medications are higher now than back then; however the fee for a ninty day rx, is pure greed. In my opinion.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1704633