Some interesting comments from a Yahoo board poster:
Interesting, I anxiously awaited the FDA approval of Makena, leaving the so called "business leaders" at KV/TherRx to handle the business aspects of getting the badly needed FDA approved product on the market. So what happened? The trusted 'business leaders" at KV, with total disregard of the plight of threatened preterm patients, chose to price Makena at an outrageous and predatory price effectively keeping patients from access to the FDA approved product.
I may not be the brightest in terms of business aspects, but I surely know that Makena was not researched and developed by KV/TherRx (in fact, was developed by NIH at government expense), and KV's strategy of having market exclusivity so that they could "jackup" the price of 17P injection from about $20 to $1500 was not only outrageous but callous and predatory. Additionally, KV's original strategy was to have Makena priced so that full payback of licensing costs and other costs occurred in the first year of marketing, hence, the outrageous price. Even my meager business sense tells me that the pricing of Makena was not fair or ethical. Bottom line is that patients who needed the FDA approved drug were denied access because of KV's pricing action...maybe you should consider how many infants delivered prematurely and did not survive because their mother could not get access to the FDA approved drug because of the predatory pricing.
With regard to the pricing of Gynazole-1 and Clindesse, KV/TherRx would be well advised to consider what the response from the OB/Gyn community will be if they travelled down the same road as Makena and priced the vaginal creams outrageously high as they did with Makena. I believe, without sensitive pricing, irregardless to what the 3rd party payers will do, OB/Gyns will use alternative products to G-1 and Clindesse.
Interesting, I anxiously awaited the FDA approval of Makena, leaving the so called "business leaders" at KV/TherRx to handle the business aspects of getting the badly needed FDA approved product on the market. So what happened? The trusted 'business leaders" at KV, with total disregard of the plight of threatened preterm patients, chose to price Makena at an outrageous and predatory price effectively keeping patients from access to the FDA approved product.
I may not be the brightest in terms of business aspects, but I surely know that Makena was not researched and developed by KV/TherRx (in fact, was developed by NIH at government expense), and KV's strategy of having market exclusivity so that they could "jackup" the price of 17P injection from about $20 to $1500 was not only outrageous but callous and predatory. Additionally, KV's original strategy was to have Makena priced so that full payback of licensing costs and other costs occurred in the first year of marketing, hence, the outrageous price. Even my meager business sense tells me that the pricing of Makena was not fair or ethical. Bottom line is that patients who needed the FDA approved drug were denied access because of KV's pricing action...maybe you should consider how many infants delivered prematurely and did not survive because their mother could not get access to the FDA approved drug because of the predatory pricing.
With regard to the pricing of Gynazole-1 and Clindesse, KV/TherRx would be well advised to consider what the response from the OB/Gyn community will be if they travelled down the same road as Makena and priced the vaginal creams outrageously high as they did with Makena. I believe, without sensitive pricing, irregardless to what the 3rd party payers will do, OB/Gyns will use alternative products to G-1 and Clindesse.