A drug to treat muscular dystrophy will hit the U.S. market with a price tag of $89,000 a year despite being available for decades in Europe at a fraction of that cost.
Marathon Pharmaceuticals LLC‘s has priced a muscular dystrophy drug at $89,000 annually. This drug has been available in Europe at about $1,600 per year with patients purchasing it generally from the United Kingdom where they are able to purchase deflazacort from an online pharmacy. FDA regulations prohibit drug importation and families will no longer be able to purchase the drug from the U.K. but will be required to purchase it for $89,000 a year.
Drugs for fewer than 200,000 people nationally, have carried price tags of $300,000 annually and higher, he said.
The drug company will no say how much they spent to acquire the trial data or conduct original research.
Marathon sold two older heart drugs to Valeant, Nitropress and Isuprel in 2015 for $350 million.
The Federal Trade Commission in 2008 alleged that another of Mr. Aronin’s companies, Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc., had illegally acquired a drug to treat congenital heart defects in babies so that it could raise the price of its competing treatment nearly 14-fold. But the FTC’s complaint was dismissed in 2010 by a court that found the drugs operated in separate product markets.