Innovation Pharmaceuticals Inc (IPIX)

[tduggan]

OK: I work in emergency departments where we see many many skin infections OF course there is an advantage of one time treatment. But the world of health care is increasingly cost driven, as we have seen with the deals for Hep C drugs with health plans. Let's say you a have MRSA lower leg cellulitis, and the total cost of Daptomycin will be much less when generic- health plans will ask you to make 3 visits instead of 1 visit if it suits them. How much will patient convenience and somewhat better efficacy count?

Sam,

thank you for getting back about this. A couple of things regarding relative costs:

1: Who will make the decision in regards to the value of non-resistance vs. cost of resistance and additional treatment/s? can you or any other doc here put an estimated dollar value on that? I think this is the elephant in the room in this discussion. Look into the FDA giving Brilacidin QIDP designation. There is a huge international concern about SUPERBUGS. This gives Brilacidin and inestimable lead over Dapto.

2: what is the cost breakdown of the situation you describe: MRSA lower leg cellulitis, leaving out the cost of the medication?

3: How frequent is the incidence of patient non-compliance? What's the dollar value of eliminating this?

My closest neighbor suffered what I believe is what you describe. He had MRSA and a lesion or sore on his shin. After hospitalization, he went three times a week to a wound clinic. The clinic cleaned the lesion and applied a fresh dressing. Ten months later, when the lesion finally healed, his total copay for all the various parts of the treatment was $3200.00. This was over and above what Medicare and his Carpenter's Union med insurance covered.

He would have happily paid a few thousand more if his doc explained to him that Brilacidin would or might give him more effective treatment. His vehicle cost alone for over 120 trips to the wound clinic is worth a few thousand. Fortunately for him he is retired and active and his daughter works at the local hospital and helps him keep track of all his appointments and medical issues.

As this issue of relative costs may keep recurring, I am very interested to hear from Sam or any other working docs or insurance people as to a good breakdown of all the costs, tangible and intangible.

Tom