In order to capitalize on the opioid crisis, a small company that sells a version of naloxone, a decades-old drug that is widely used to reverse the effect of opioid and heroin overdoses, raised the price of its product by more than 600 percent between 2014 and 2017, which cost the federal government more than $142 million, according to a lengthy report from a Senate subcommittee.
Central to its strategy, Kaleo circumvented the traditional pharmaceutical market by subsidizing patients who were given its Evzio opioid antidote device, instead of contracting with pharmacy benefit managers and insurers. In doing so, the company used a controversial scheme to provide Evzio at no cost to patients, but counted on private and public insurers to pay an ever-rising wholesale, or list, price.
“Kaléo’s more than 600 percent price increase of EVZIO not only exploits a country in the middle of an opioid crisis, but also American taxpayers who fund government-run health care programs designed to be a safety net for our country’s elderly and most vulnerable,” the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations alleged.
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Hey
My husband uses humira and we cant find the way to get it how con you help us we are really needing this medication
I hope they don’t erase my comment again.
Mrs Giorgianna,
Acupuncture can reduce his pain and prevent opioid addiction.
Sorry I wrote a nicer comment for you earlier, but it has been erased.
the power of evil is amazing to those consumed by greed
These companies target Medicaid Programs, since they are no longer accountable. At the state level they peddle this or bribe easy to hoodwink local officials. The media has failed to keep the public informed. They peddle hate and stigma in order to obscure the facts. The so called opiate epidemic was created by pharma and corrupt government officials. They continue to spread fear and misinformation in order to profit. We have seen the FDA, CDC, and and DEA, fail time and again, thanks to unlimited pharma profiteering.
This is an example of unregulated Market Based Healthcare, it is no wonder people are dying. They replaced facts and treatment with these overpriced drugs. These drugs were developed and paid for by Taxpayers, and they are the ones footing the bill for this unmitigated greed. No one did anything in 2001, they allowed this to fester and spread. Not one fact based response has been made. Instead they chose to peddle alternatives to obscure the facts.
This is more like a criminal conspiracy than a sensible reaction to a crisis.
There was a reason that the psychologists helped media re-frame pain. They saw an opportunity to profit.
Johnson,
Your evidence-based medicine are responsible for this opioid crisis.
All those years, the medical profession believes in evidence-based to benefit themselves. Now, a crisis of opioid, did they know the effect of these drugs they’ve been prescribing? Do they know fully the effect of any drug? Evidence-based, was there any evidence? Where was the evidence? Are they blindly prescribing drugs they don’t fully understand?