Makena Adds New Cost to Pregnancy

A baby can be one of life’s greatest gifts. Or at least that’s what I hear. KV Pharmaceutical dosen’t seem to share that same sentiment. They’ve hiked up the price of a potentially life saving medicine.

KV Pharmaceutical figured out a way to make millions from pregnant women’s pocket books. USA Today reports that back in 2003 pharmacists developed a compound drug progesterone to help reduce the risk of pre-mature birth by 36 percent. One dose of progesterone used to cost only $10 a weeks over a 20 week period.

That was chump change compared to what KV Pharmaceuticals is charging now. They brought exclusive rights to the progesterone treatment called Makena and now will charge $1,500 per dose. Not only is that outrageous it’s just plain wrong. Why charge a pregnant women more if her baby is experiencing difficulty. It just seems to add insult to injury.

How did KV Pharmaceutical manage to do this without the FDA interfering?

They found a loop hole. Drugs made from compound substances do not need FDA approval. KV Pharmaceutical paid $200 million to gain exclusive rights to the drug. While that may seem like a substantial amount of money, they company will recoup that investment 18 times in the first year alone, gaining a $3.9 billion dollar profit.

Democratic Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown is outraged with the new cost of the once affordable drug. TIME Magazine reports that Senator Brown and Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission calling for an investigation and price reduction.

So what does this mean for pregnant women? Simply stated it means women seeking medications to prevent premature birth will be forced to make some hard choices. That’s particularly sad. Affording medications to increase the health of an unborn child should be the last thing pregnant women need to worry about.