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Headache Drugs Prohibitively Expensive

© Barbara J. Mitchell

While reading over my collection of headache materials for a new book, I ran across some startling figures. They were in an article by Curtis Rist ("The Pain is in the Brain") which appeared in the March 2000 issue of Discover. It's well worth tracking it down so you can read it too.

Anyway, as noted here before, the latest effective drugs for migraines and clusters are the triptans. Rist writes that a single oral dose of a triptan runs $10-15 (it may be more now), and one injection costs $35. He tells the story of a lawyer who has cluster headaches. During a cluster this poor guy will have 10-12 headaches a day, each requiring an injection. He investigated health insurance policies, and found that they only authorized 6 injections per month, so he pays for them himself. In one year it cost him $40,000. Good thing he's a lawyer. What would a receptionist or a waitress or a store clerk do?

This subject just happens to fuel the flame for me right now. I've recently stopped taking an arthritis drug, partly because it wasn't working as well as I thought it should, but mainly because of the expense. The manufacturer runs multi-page ads in many magazines, and having priced ads for my first book, I know just how much they cost. Every time I turn on the television, I see another 30 second commercial for this drug. We all know how expensive TV commercials are. Guess who's paying for all of this.

Every time I got a refill on my prescription I paid $126 for a 30-day supply, and that's with a discount. Meanwhile, my insurance premium was skyrocketing, and I assume that's partly because of drug prices, and the insurance company was reducing benefits, including the amount it allows for drugs.

That puts me in the same fix as a person who needs drugs for migraines or clusters.

Then I read in this morning's paper that Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories abruptly stopped making tetanus vaccine because they don't make enough money on it, and the one company still making it, Aventis Pasteur, has round-the-clock shifts working on tetanus. Problem is it takes 11 months for each batch, so there is a severe shortage and will be at least until the end of this year. Wyeth-Ayerst has also suddenly stopped making Wydase, which is used in eye surgeries such as cataract removal.

Abbot Laboratories, according to the same AP article, can't make enough Isuprel which is used in hospitals for cardiac arrest victims because it can't get the ingredients from its suppliers. And there are shortages of Fentanyl and Narcan as well.

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