Exclusive: Biogen prices hemophilia drug on par with older therapies

[riky]

Exclusive: Biogen prices hemophilia drug on par with older therapies

<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-biogen-prices-hemophilia-drug-par-older-therapies-170424240--finance.html"><img src="http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/ggJye365GtTy6g7e1MaDUw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTg2O3E9NzU7dz0xMzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-04-18T190457Z_2_CBREA3H1BFH00_RTROPTP_2_USA.JPG" width="130" height="86" alt="The company's name is displayed on a billboard near the headquarters of Biogen Idec Inc. in Cambridge" align="left" title="The company's name is displayed on a billboard near the headquarters of Biogen Idec Inc. in Cambridge" border="0" /></a>Biogen Idec Inc is pricing its newly approved long-acting hemophilia drug, Alprolix, to cost U.S. patients, and insurers, about the same per year as older, less convenient therapies whose price can reach about $300,000 annually. The move could pressure rivals such as Pfizer Inc to lower prices for existing hemophilia treatments, which provide patients with life-saving infusions of a blood clotting agent, according to doctors and industry analysts. Biogen last month won U.S. and Canadian approval for Alprolix to treat hemophilia B, the more rare form of the condition that affects about 4,000 people in the United States and about 25,000 worldwide. &quot;We think we have priced (Alprolix) to create parity with existing therapies on an annual cost of therapy basis,&quot; Tony Kingsley, Biogen's head of global commercial operations, told Reuters in a telephone interview.</p><br clear="all"/>

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