Every 3 to 4 months, I have a check-up appointment with a Rheumatologist here in Center City Philadelphia. Basically, he looks at me, bends my arms, legs and fingers, pushes on my abdomen, shines a light in my ears and mouth, takes my blood pressure, asks me a bunch of questions I say "no" to, and then orders me to bleed and pee for the mean lady with the needle and rubber band in the patient-bloodletting closet.
See, I have a rare condition, with no known cause, that reared it's head in high school. Its called Leukocytoclastic Vasculitis which is basically just a really annoying, sometimes temporarily disabling, rash that appears and disappears for no known reason all over my body, but mostly my legs. There, I said it. Yeah, it sucks, but I get by very well, and most people would never know. But, the reason I get by so well is largely related to "my drug problem."...which is what you came here to read about, right? So...
This morning, during the 5 to 10 minutes that I had with my doctor, I was told that the drug I have been taking off and on, depending on my condition, for over 20 years, called Colchicine, was no longer going to be available in generic form. A Philadelphia, PA-based company called URL Pharma, Inc. apparently has convinced the FDA (according to my doctor, and PRESS RELEASE HERE) that there was not enough quality control in the generic Colchicine production market, and was able to get exclusive marketing rights to market Colchicine under their brand name "Colcrys".
I still have another few weeks worth of my old unsafely manufactured generic Colchicine, so I have not yet refilled, and thus don't know first-hand what the new price for Colcrys will be. But, according to a quick look on Wikipedia, the price per pill, has been raised from 9 cents, to $4.85. I take two a day. That means, that for a drug that used to cost me about $65/year (I know mine was a little more than that...), it will now cost me $3,540/year.
But, that's not even the best part...yes, it gets better.
I am very very fortunate to have a good health insurance program called "Personal Choice" through Independence Blue Cross. I pay for all of it myself, as I am self-employed. But, I do NOT have the prescription drug nor optical (eye) plans. Why? Because if I can pay for my own drugs (I only take 1 prescription drug, Colchicine) and doing so is cheaper than paying for the drug insurance, I figured that was the most logical, and honorable thing to do. So, I explained this to my doctor, and he said that I needed to revisit my decision not to have drug coverage, and also that URL Pharma had various patient assistance programs that I should explore.
So, I explored the patient assistance programs. I visited their website, reviewed their 3 programs, and chose the one that appeared to be the most appropriate for me: the "Colcrys Co-Pay Assistance Coupon" where you "Pay No More Than $25 For Your Colcrys Prescription". But, after printing the coupon, and reading the fine print, I found the following listed: "Not valid for cash-paying patients or rejected claims." So, I called them. And yes, if I want to pay for my own drugs, there are NO long-term assistance programs for me.
Do you think anything is wrong with this picture? I want to pay for my own drugs. But, the drug company wants to extort money from me with their grossly inflated non-generic drug prices, while ALSO lining the pockets of the health insurance companies by forcing me to buy their insurance too. And, who knows who else is getting the big fat bonuses we'll all be paying them this year...maybe some FDA officials, a few politicians, etc. All I know is there is going to be a lot more money sloshing around in a much more concentrated group of money-grabbing hands, and someone will be buying lots of new toys with all their big bonus money as a result.
This is just WRONG!!!
But, the good thing is, we always have choices, right?
- I could see if my doctor can find an alternate drug that is equally effective, and cheaper. (highly unlikely...nothing else is known to help my condition, or at least that is how I understand it)
- I could buy Colcrys at full price. ($3,540 per year? Right.)
- I could stop taking the drug. (maybe...that should be interesting...but I've done it before, only after all of my symptoms had already been completely gone for months)
- I could buy drug insurance coverage. (I HATE to give any more money to the insurance companies...but, this may be what I end up doing.)
- Write a stupid blog post, go drink a beer, and think about it a little longer until my prescription runs out...and worry about it then...I've got about another week...
Until then, maybe a history lesson on how evil and dangerous this Colchicine stuff is will make me feel better (history of Colchicine, as per Wikipedia)........
"Colchicum extract was first described as a treatment for gout in De Materia Medica by Pedanius Dioscorides in the first century CE. Colchicine was first isolated in 1820 by the two French chemists P.S. Pelletier and J. Caventon.[4] The alkaloid was later identified as a tricyclic alkaloid, and its pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory effects for gout were linked to its ability to bind with tubulin.
The precursor of colchicine Colchicum was described for treatment of rheumatism and swelling in the Ebers Papyrus, ca. 1500 B.C.[5] The use of Colchicum corm for gout probably traces back to ca. 550 A.D., as the "hermodactyl" recommended by Alexander of Tralles. Colchicum corm was used by ibn Sina Persian physician and other Islamic physicians, was recommended by Ambroise Pare in the sixteenth century, and appeared in the London Pharmacopoeia of 1618.[6] In 1833 P.L. Geiger purified an active ingredient, which he named colchicine.[7] Colchicum was brought to America by Benjamin Franklin; Franklin suffered from gout himself and had written humorous doggerel about the disease during his stint as Envoy to France.[8]"
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Bottom line, our health-care system is F-d.
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