Biotech drug prices hitting ceiling?

Have biotech drugs gotten as pricey as they're going to get? With psoriasis drugs, the latest entrant, facing intense price pressure, some observers say that they have. At $10,000 to $35,000 per year, psoriasis drugs are the high-end models the biotechnology industry, up there with gold-plated treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and cancer. Biotech industry players like Amgen and Genentech expected to see psoriasis drugs sell as well as drugs for these other disease categories, but they were wrong. Among other problems, insurance companies have been insisting that patients try cheaper medications before they try the ultra-costly psoriasis biologics. Some signs suggest that sales problems are specific to psoriasis treatment patterns, such as dermatologists who prefer to do profitable Botox injections rather than treat psoriasis. But others say high prices are the simple--and obvious--problem with drugs like Enbrel, which sold $2.1 billion in the US, down from its 35 percent growth in 2005. The billion-dollar question is whether such issues will begin to choke back sales for MS, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis drugs anytime soon.

To learn more about the high-priced biologics debate:
- read this New York Times piece

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