Press room
Fair Pricing Coalition expresses dismay
over pricing of new anti-HIV drug, Selzentry
August 8, 2007
San Francisco, CA—The Fair Pricing Coalition
(FPC), a nationwide ad-hoc coalition of HIV/AIDS activists who work
on domestic pricing issues with pharmaceutical companies, expressed
dismay and disappointment with Pfizer’s pricing of its new
anti-HIV drug Selzentry. In the view of the FPC, “Pfizer chose
a conventional pricing strategy which amounts to ‘whatever
the market will bear,’ said Lynda Dee, a member of the group
that met with Pfizer. Dee, who also represents AIDS Action Baltimore
and the AIDS Treatment Activist Coalition (ATAC), said that the
price announced by Pfizer, $29 per day, puts the new drug at the
high end of the most expensive class of drugs, called protease inhibitors,
and above the price of the most popular drugs in this class. “When
will this policy of escalating prices stop? Not until the government
imposes price controls since Big Pharma continues to act so irresponsibly
in this regard,” said Dee.
AIDS activists struggle annually to secure adequate federal funding
to provide access to the expensive drugs used to treat HIV but complain
that ever increasing drug prices make it impossible to keep up with
the demand. In several states, patients are placed on waiting lists
for treatment as their immune systems decline. The Fair Pricing
Coalition has been meeting with Pfizer about the price of Selzentry
since March of 2007 trying to make sure that the drug doesn’t
increase the cost of treatment for people with HIV. When the cost
of treatment increases, more people end up on waiting lists and
morbidity and mortality increase.
Another member of the group, Martin Delaney, also of the AIDS group
Project Inform and ATAC, said, “We had hoped that Pfizer would
take the high ground and recognize the problem that high drug prices
are causing for everyone. At the very least, we hoped they would
set the price at the middle or low range for drugs of similar utility.”
Delaney said that throughout the meetings with the company, Pfizer
representatives insisted that they understood the need for reasonable
pricing and would respect the patient groups concerns. While the
FPC does recognize the investment that Pfizer has made in bringing
a new class of drugs to market, “there is no justification
for pricing this drug at the high end of protease inhibitor therapy,”
said Delaney. “It is not particularly difficult or expensive
to make, nor does it offer any great advantage over the alternatives.”
Delaney argues that Pfizer’s investment in AIDS research is
modest compared to other companies, some of which have been working
in the field for more than 20 years. Selzentry is the first drug
Pfizer has developed for HIV. The company characterizes Selzentry
as a “breakthrough” product, but the community groups
say that its performance in clinical trials has been good but not
great and breaks no new ground. Moreover, they point out that it
can only be used in about 60% of people with advanced HIV disease.
The other 40% have a type of HIV that does not respond to the drug.
Because of this, patients must first take a diagnostic test before
using the drug to determine if they have the appropriate type of
HIV.
Lynda Dee added, “this $29 per day figure doesn’t tell
the whole story about the cost of using this drug. Everyone must
first take the new tropism test to see if the drug will work for
them, and for now, that test is likely to cost somewhere between
$1500 to $2400. Twenty-nine dollars a day already puts it at the
high end of HIV drug prices – adding the cost of the test
puts its way over the top.“ The test, called the Trofile assay,
is provided by Monogram Biosciences, a laboratory and diagnostics
company near San Francisco. Pfizer makes no mention of the Trofile
test in its press release. Community groups and Pfizer alike are
reportedly unhappy over the high cost of the Monogram test, which
threatens to minimize the use of their drug.
Summing up the group’s perspective, Delaney said, “The
best way to use this drug has yet to be determined. It requires
the use of an expensive diagnostic test at least once if not more
often. Given this and the other limitations it faces, we feel that
the company’s pricing strategy is inappropriate and unwarranted.
There was plenty of room for profit and additional funding for future
research at a lower price point.”
The Fair Pricing Coalition is an ad hoc group of community-based
activists who work on drug pricing issues with pharmaceutical companies
in the field of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. The core group is supported
by a much larger group of AIDS and hepatitis organizations and concerned
individuals who participate through consensus statements and petitions.
The core group of the FCP is made up of experienced activists,
all of whom wear multiple hats and typically speak for their own
parent organizations as well as on behalf of the FCP. Many are also
members of ATAC (the AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition) and some
are people who advocate on behalf of federal support programs, such
as the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). Some members are physicians
who speak on behalf of providers. Almost all are members of various
community advisory boards and non-profit organizations which meet
with the pharmaceutical industry on a range of topics. The sole
focus of the FCP is drug pricing and how it impacts patients, public
and private payers, and providers. The core group meets with and
coordinates discussions over pricing with individual pharmaceutical
companies.
The overall goal of the Fair Pricing Coalition is to first stop
the upward creep in the cost of drugs. This means negotiating for
prices for new drugs which are truly “cost neutral,”
meaning that they will not increase the cost of treatment. Over
the longer term, the goal of the FPC is to lower the cost of treatment
by reducing the cost of drugs.
