| WASHINGTON, DC — Next week, Congress will hold a hearing to investigate, among other things, Pfizer’s price hikes on more than three dozen drugs. Patients For Affordable Drugs tracked down the list of drugs that increased in price this month (data below), and we wanted to share three stories from patients who take those drugs.
HERE’S A PATIENT PERSPECTIVE:
April Knowles has incurable breast cancer and takes the Pfizer therapy Ibrance to extend
her life and time with her husband and 12-year-old son. The price? About $13,000 every 28 days. When it was first approved in February 2015, Ibrance had a price tag of $9,850 a month. That’s an increase of nearly one-third in just four years. And Pfizer raised the price again in January 2019.
Denise Sukunda was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in 2011. After remission, her cancer returned in 2015. It metastasized and found its way into her liver and bones. Pfizer’s blockbuster cancer drug, Ibrance, helps fight the cancer. Now, she has to scramble and worry about affording her refills.
Meg Jackson-Drage was prescribed Pfizer’s blockbuster drug, Lyrica, to treat the pain and symptoms of her fibromyalgia. It was the drug that she had long been waiting for as it ameliorated much of the pain she deals with on a daily basis. When she found out it would cost her $550 out of pocket each month, even with the discount card, she was stunned. And it would mean only taking a third of the dose her doctor ultimately wanted her to take.
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