Tom Ault
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
I find it very upsetting to find the FDA would approve a drug that would cost such a ridiculous price as $2.125 million. This is a kick in the face of intelligence, or any sign of it, in medicine.
No doubt those 400 babies born each year are important, I know they would be to me. But in the case that should happen to one in my family, there would be no way in the world we could afford Zolgensma any more than we could pronounce it. Novartis being kind, pointing out the cost could be on payments of only $425,000 each year for a five-year period. Of course you might get Spinraza at $750,000 for the first year and only $350,000 a year after that. I have to ask, what kind of idiot has the audacity to even consider drugs of this kind…how many of us even make that much in a year?
I know it may sound heartless, but maybe some of that research should have gone toward cancer elimination. How many kids have that every year in comparison? Yes, it is wonderful that the disease, spinal muscular atrophy, can now be controlled…that is if anyone could afford to other than multimillionaires. You can rest assured that the insurance companies are not going to pay for that one…that is unless they can negotiate it down to where it probably really should be…maybe $1000?
Today just to take the medications that are prescribed, and many of those probably not really needed, one has to take away from groceries, utilities, rent, or mortgage payments…let’s just forget about clothing, any enjoyment, or for heaven’s sake a vacation!
No doubt this is a tirade from a disgusted American citizen who believes that the wolves have taken over the country and is slowly devouring all of the sheep that made the country what it used to be but is no more!
It will be nice when the drug companies get their wings clipped, stop paying their CEOs in the millions per year and pass that money down to relieving the price of their product. These companies should have to break down their actual costs and tell us how much they receive for researching these medicines.
There was a time when drug research people actually tried to help people instead of their bank accounts.