FDAnews Drug Daily Bulletin

Bristol-Myers Slammed by AIDS Group Over Pricing (Pharmalot)
In his blog, Ed Silverman writes about the Fair Pricing Coalition’s (FPC) condemnation of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) for raising prices on its HIV drugs.

Most drugmakers meet with the FPC, a community group, to discuss HIV drug pricing, but BMS has not done so for many years, according to the coalition.

“The increases, which ranged from 6.9 percent to 9 percent for all of Bristol’s HIV products ‘are well beyond any increases in the Consumer Price Index and above the increases taken by any other company,’ says Martin Delaney of the FPC, in a statement. ‘These drugs have been on the market for several years and their development costs have long been recovered. There is no justification for this kind of increase,’” Silverman writes.

The coalition fears other drugmakers could follow BMS’ lead. The company markets four HIV drugs: Zerit, Sustiva, Atripla and Reyataz.