PAH drug pricing - update

Pharmalyst had previously posted about the wide range in the pricing of PAH drugs approved currently (summarized below).





Thanks to all the comments and some direct feedback via e-mail, there is better clarity on the issue. Here is a synopsis:

1. Flolan: Well worth its 100,000K+ costs. It is very effective and very inconvenient (frequent infusions, injection site pain etc). This class of drugs is the only deal for stage IV PAH patients.

2. Letaris & Tracleer: Comparably priced at 40K plus. Effective but has liver tox issues and needs frequent monitoring. Letaris claims much lower liver tox than Tracleer. Is effective in patients with stage II and stage III PAH.

3. Revatio: Cost wise, it can not be more than Viagra (since Revatio is same as Viagra). Common dosing is 20mg three times a day. At Viagra's cost of $8 per pill it works to approximately 10K per year. Also many physicians want to use higher doses. However safety at much higher doses and over much longer periods of time under chronic use conditions has not been studied. Suitability in more advanced stages of PAH has also not been studied.

Consensus Opinion: Revatio will be the initial choice for phase I patients. Phase II and III patients will probably use Revatio and Letaris in combination therapy. However if long term safety of Revatio in chronic and high dose setting is established, it will capture more share from Letaris and could be used as monotherapy in Phase II and Phase III patients. Other PDE 5 drugs like Cialis are also doing studies for PAH.