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U.S.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is calling for an investigation into what she
calls price gouging and potentially anti-competitive behavior after KV
Pharmaceutical raised the price 150-fold for an injection used to prevent
preemie babies.
Klobuchar
and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, sent a letter Thursday to Federal Trade Commission
Chairman Jon Leibowitz urging the agency to launch a prob into Makena, is a
weekly injection of progesterone meant to prevent pre-term labor in pregnant
women and has been safely administered by U.S. pharmacies in the past at a cost
of between $10 and $20 per injection. After Bridgeton-based KV was granted
orphan status for its version of the drug, the cost rose to $1,500 per
injection – 150 times the original cost.
“This
is a proven and affordable drug that has been around for over 50 years. It’s
critical that we make sure this company isn’t taking advantage of its
orphan-drug determination to monopolize the market and engage in price gouging
at the expense of pregnant women,” Klobuchar said. “At a time when rising
prices for prescription drugs are stretching the budgets of middle-class families,
we must be vigilant in stopping practices that would limit access to vital
medicines.”
“KV
created an overnight monopoly for this lifesaving drug – and then proposed
raising the price by 14,900 percent,” Brown said. “Last week, I called on KV
Pharmaceutical to immediately reconsider their decision, but to this date the
company continues to defend this astronomical price increase. Price-gouging is
never acceptable, particularly not when it undermines public health and fleeces
taxpayers. Families deserve an investigation.”
Last
week, Brown sent a letter to KV asking the company to reverse course on the
price increase for Makena. Brown called on the company to maintain access to
the critical drug to stem an increase in premature births.
The
drug first came to the market over 50 years ago and it has recently been used
to help prevent early births in women who have a history of spontaneous
pre-term deliveries.
The
full text of the letter is below:
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