JUST CURIOUS -What is the cost of your medications?

[anonymous]

As far as I know, the cost of Tobi is one reason, why they don´t want the new Pari eFlow rapid... With it you would have to inhale less of the Tobi, because its bringing so much into the lungs, so the Pharma industry would sell less of it and therefore earn less...

In Germany we have two different kinds of insurances at the moment:
-private, which do normally not take sick people as members, but do also pay for accupuncture, homoepatic medicine and so on in most cases
-statutable, which do mostly not pay for vitamins, minerals, homoeopatic medicines etc

As I have cf, I am a member of one of the second ones. It costs about 14 % of your income. They cover all the normal meds including ADEKs (at the moment for CFers) and Iron, all the diabetic stuff and also clinic, doctor etc, but you have to pay an additional 1 % of your yearly income for meds, if you have an illness like cf, 2 % if you are not having a terminal disease.

Uli,43,Germany

 

[Ratatosk]

Tobi is an orphan drug. Little or no competition. I believe there was a competing company that was going to produce a generic form of it last year and lost a court battle. I have heard there's a powder form of tobi that might be coming down the pipe -- would be in an inhalant form and there are a couple other drugs (antibiotics) that are being developed.

Lisa

 

[Ruby]

We don't have to pay for anything here, once I have a perscription it's all paid for by the govt. cos CF is a long term illness. Even my dandruff shampoo is covered. I can't believe how much money some people on here have to pay out for essential medicines it's terrible that on top of the burden of dealing with CF that you have to worry about money for meds as well.

 

[NoExcuses]

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[NoExcuses]

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[mommymissa]

we are lucky to be tn the milarty and we dont have to pay for any of our sons meds and ther are a lot of them but caose we can not get them onpost we get the price of the and its well over $8,000 but a lot of that is his tobi and polmozyme so get gets to be a lot ith copayments

 

[kybert]

perhaps those who use tobi and are having trouble with the costs could just use plain ole tobramycin [preservative free] for IV use. thats what we use here and its just as effective. well really its exactly the same except we use 2 vials twice a day instead of 1 vial of tobi twice a day. no need to dilute. ive read that IV tobramycin can cost lest than half the price of tobi. quite frankly i dont understand the reasoning behind tobis high prices. there isnt really anything special about their formulation! oh, if tobi was to be released here id boycott it. thats how strongly i feel about them.

 

[Seana30]

Mommymissa,

Are you talking about the US military? Because if you are you should not be paying copays because they do not have that medicine in stock. The pharmacy on base should be special ordering you these prescriptions at no cost!!!

They give us a hard time ALOT over Courtney's Ultrase MT20's and her Vitamax, but I will fight with them evertime, and everytime I let them know they have no choice but to special order them for us!

Seana

 

[shauna]

im the same as emma, in australia but no health care card so about $30 for each thing...and I get about 5 meds each time i have an appt so it really adds up.

 

[anonymous]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote><i>Originally posted by: <b>amy</b></i>

There is no competition for TOBI because it has a patent. This has nothing to do with the fact that it treats an orphan disease. No drug is an orphan drug. Some drugs, however, are fast tracted through the FDA because they treat orphan diseases. No one has come out with a drug SIMILAR to TOBI because there's no money in it.
</end quote></div>


So why is it when I google CF for the latest news, some of the articles say "placeboX has been designated Orphan Drug Status by the FDA and is undergoing phase III testing in Europe"? Just curious? Also, tobi was approve in 1997 for use, I realize that they have to recoup their costs, but since DS was put on tobi in September of 2003 -- the price has increase from $2800 a month to $3700 a month? Shouldn't the prices eventually go down? Again, just curiousity... Liza aka ratatosk

 

[NoExcuses]

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[Ratatosk]

I think tobi was approved for use in 1997 -- so 20 years would put it at 2017? give or take a year or so... L

 

[dyza]

regarding Tobi, what is the difference between being an 'agent', tobi, and a medication

 

[shinkdew]

Chiron's annual report says the patents for Tobi expire in 2014 and 2015. They are also the company developing the tobramycin inhalation powder with Nektar pharmaceuticals.

 

[NoExcuses]

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[Tess]

<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif" border="0">Meds well I'm in NB and The NB government are a bunch of A$$ HOLES .......... Touchy topic with me .....

The government will pay for just about everything with me paying a small co-pay However I have insurance through my employer which covers 80% of all meds I take ......... Great .... no the government says oh so they'll pay ..... Guess What we wont anymore ..... They'd have to cover my 20% copay which would be incredably cheeper for the gov. the paying the majority ........

price list i got from the drug store

52.88 ventolin nebs
925.88 emzymes
99.16 Avelox
72.67 Levaquin
21.84 Clox
293.20 tobramycine
52.90 Zantacs
13.41 Puffer Vent.
30.29 Doxy
12.69 cipro

I have to pay 20% out of my pocket on everything It Sucks cause I didn't ask for any of it ....... Just like the rest of the CF's out there.


As an add on my parents have two of us with CF my bro is 25 and I'm 23. They went in DEBT for like 20, 000 just trying to pay for our meds ....... God love my Pharmacist !!!!!!!!!<img src="i/expressions/brokenheart.gif" border="0">

 

[tiregrl19]

With my insurance I have to pay upfront for all of my meds, including TOBI and pulmozyme. Then about two or three weeks later they send me a check. The part that is hard is the beginning of the year when our cap is like 1,000 a person that you have to pay upfront. We usually have that done by the 1st of February <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0">

 

[wuffles]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote><i>Originally posted by: <b>kybert</b></i>

perhaps those who use tobi and are having trouble with the costs could just use plain ole tobramycin [preservative free] for IV use. thats what we use here and its just as effective. well really its exactly the same except we use 2 vials twice a day instead of 1 vial of tobi twice a day. no need to dilute. ive read that IV tobramycin can cost lest than half the price of tobi. quite frankly i dont understand the reasoning behind tobis high prices. there isnt really anything special about their formulation! oh, if tobi was to be released here id boycott it. thats how strongly i feel about them.</end quote></div>

I'll second this, tobramycin is pretty much the same but cheaper <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

 

[dyza]

Isn't tobramycin the generic name, while TOBI is the brand name. Making them the same drug?

 

[anonymous]

TOBI is the brand name for premixed preservative-free tobramycine and saline.
But you can mix it yourself. My cousin in Canada says they often do there and it is much cheaper.