Lots of posts today about the cost of V and patients refusing to fill a prescription due to the cost. This will likely change significantly over the next 6-12 months with the SNDA and ICER improving insurance coverage.
In the meantime I would encourage those of you who have family and friends who feel V is cost prohibitive to suggest they cut their costs by 25-50% by taking 2 or 3 pills/day instead of 4.
Sure RI was only 4 gms/day, but JELIS was only 1.8 gms (although in a lower risk population). Certainly 2-3 gms is better than 0 gms and we really don't know what the upper limit of efficacy is since only a 4 gm dose was used.
Maximum efficacy with reasonable side effects could be 2gms/day or it could be 6gms/day - we don't know.
We also know that even for patients taking a prescribed med 30% or more don't not actually take the recommended daily dose. It is likely that the average doses taken in RI were closer to 3gms/day than 4 gms/day. So, if someone is diligent in taking 3gms/day they likely will get RI like results.
The other advantage of at least taking a smaller dose is more folks will be on the drug, more docs will become comfortable with prescribing Vascepa, the transition to 4gms will be easy once the price goes down and we will surely see fewer MACE than not taking V at all.
Let not perfect be the enemy of the good
