LOS ANGELES, Aug. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest AIDS organization in the US which operates free AIDS treatment clinics in the US, Africa, Central America and Asia -- today issued sharp criticism of Boehringer-Ingelheim over the drug company’s recently announced record-high price for its latest AIDS drug Aptivus (tipranavir), part of a class of drugs known as protease inhibitors, taken in conjunction with other medications to treat HIV. The astronomically high $13,000-a-year price tag for this one drug makes it the most expensive drug in its class. This latest news comes amidst an increase in federal and state fraud claims against pharmaceutical companies over inflated drug prices for public health programs like Medicare and Medicaid -- including a recently announced legal action by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer against 39 drug companies charged with reporting inflated drug prices which were then relied upon by the state to set reimbursement rates, likely costing California’s beleaguered public health care system untold millions.
“On behalf of the thousands of clients we serve, AHF is outraged over the exorbitant and seemingly arbitrary price tag for Boehringer-Ingelheim’s newest AIDS drug, Aptivus,” said Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) President. “Sadly, such pricing practices are just ‘business as usual’ for the drug industry and just another step in the dizzying upward climb in drug prices overall, a trend that increasingly endangers access to prescriptions drugs. Such grossly inflated prices reveal an industry out of control and are simply unacceptable -- especially in light of the ever-growing number of drug-company fraud cases, such as the case filed by California Attorney General Lockyer last week charging dozens of drug companies with artificially inflating prices and bilking California out of millions of dollars.”
AIDS Healthcare Foundation has long been an outspoken advocate for stricter drug-pricing controls to rein in questionable pricing practices by the pharmaceutical industry and has successfully lobbied to place high-priced drugs on ‘prior authorization’ status through programs overseen by California’s Department of Health Services (DHS) such as Medi-Cal and the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), a source of AIDS drugs for many Californians living with HIV/AIDS. Prior authorization simply allows for a second opinion for a doctor prescribing a drug to ensure that it is medically necessary and that limited state resources are being spent effectively and responsibly while ensuring that patients receive the quality treatment and care they need.
“Unless drug companies -- and/or the industry’s federal regulators -- can rein in such out of control pricing and practices, AHF will lobby, as we have done in the past, to have such drugs placed on prior authorization status through programs like Medi-Cal. We also urge all Californians to take the issue of spiraling drug prices into their own hands this November by voting ‘yes’ on Prop. 79, a prescription drug discount program that will provide significant savings on prescription drugs to up to ten million Californians. Most importantly, Prop. 79 has an enforcement mechanism that should ensure that drug companies will actually comply with the discount program -- a necessary measure to regulate an industry that appears to be totally incapable of self regulation,” added Weinstein.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation
CONTACT: Lori Yeghiayan, Communications Specialist of AIDS HealthcareFoundation, +1-323-860-5227, or mobile, +1-323-377-4312
