another stupid move by AYTU....
Drugmaker Raises Price of Sleep Aid Over 800%
9:00 am ET July 14, 2018 (Dow Jones) Print
By Jonathan D. Rockoff
A small Colorado drugmaker recently raised the price for a spray form of sleep aid Ambien by as much as 843%, the latest example of how some firms are increasing prices despite mounting pressure.
So far this year, companies have made 3,653 price increases on 1,045 different drug products, according to Raymond James & Associates, even as President Donald Trump and other members of his administration have criticized such moves.
The median price increase is 8%, but some specific increases have been far greater. Aytu BioScience Inc. raised the list price of a 7.7 milliliter bottle of its sleep aid Zolpimist to $659 from $69.88, while increasing the price of a 4.5 milliliter bottle by 747% to $329.50, according to RELX PLC's Elsevier Gold Standard Drug Database. The drug is a spray version of zolpidem, the key ingredient in Ambien, which is widely available as cheap generic pills.
Chief Executive Josh Disbrow said Aytu raised Zolpimist's list price to bring it in line with the cost of other brand-name sleep drugs. He said Zolpimist was for the small number of patients willing to pay more, often out of their own pockets, for the oral spray than for lower-priced pills.
"For those people who want a Cadillac, they can pay for it," Mr. Disbrow said in an interview.
Aytu's increase in the list price of Zolpimist was among the biggest increases taken in the middle of this year, according to Elsevier's data on the wholesale-acquisition cost of prescription drugs. Bloomberg earlier reported the Zolpimist increases.
Some price increases caught politicians' attention. Pfizer Inc., under pressure from Mr. Trump, said Monday that it was deferring some price increases it had taken July 1 on more than 40 of its prescription drugs. Pfizer said its price rollbacks would remain in effect through the end of the year at the latest.
Other drugmakers that raised prices recently -- but weren't singled out by name by Mr. Trump -- haven't reversed course.
"These types of increases indicate that public criticism, even from President Trump, are not enough to change the trajectory of drug costs," said Michael Rea, chief executive of Rx Savings Solutions, which sells software to help employers and health insurers lower their drug spending.
White House officials didn't respond to a request for comment, but Mr. Trump has periodically criticized high drug prices since his campaign, and promised to take action. In May, the president proposed various initiatives to curb high drug prices. Later that month, he predicted "massive" drug-price cuts.
Aytu, of Englewood, Colo., raised the price of Zolpimist on Tuesday, about a month after buying the rights to sell the drug in the U.S. and Canada from Magna Pharmaceuticals Inc. The practice of buying rights and then raising the price, by companies including Valeant Pharmaceuticals under then-CEO Michael Pearson and Martin Shkreli's Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, has drawn criticism from public officials and others because the companies didn't invest in developing the drugs.
Mr. Disbrow said Aytu's increases for Zolpimist were different than other examples because the drug is for a lifestyle condition rather than a life-threatening disease, and generic options are available.
"It's a luxury item. Patients can choose to be on the generic. We want to have it out there for patients who value their rapid sleep," Mr. Disbrow said. He added that Aytu, which sells a drug for low testosterone, doesn't depend on the Zolpimist price increases to raise sales. Aytu reported $2.7 million in revenue for the nine months ending March 31.
Mr. Disbrow said he expected most sleep-aid patients would buy the generics, and health plans would require people to try the generics before looking at other options. Doctors write more than 30 million zolpidem prescriptions a year, though fewer than 2,000 of them for Zolpimist, he said.
Generic versions of the sleep aid sell for less than $10 for a 30-day supply, according to Mr. Rea.
Write to Jonathan D. Rockoff at Jonathan.Rockoff@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 14, 2018 09:00 ET (13:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
