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WEDNESDAY, Nov. 8, 2023 (Healthday Information) — A brand new drug to deal with postpartum despair will value almost $16,000 for a 14-day course of therapy, a price ticket that has medical doctors fearful that some sufferers gained’t be capable to afford the medicine.
Zurzuvae (zuranolone) was first authorized by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration again in August, and it carried the excellence of being the primary postpartum despair (PPD) drug that may be taken as a tablet.
Regardless of Zurzuvae’s excessive value, drugmaker Sage Therapeutics mentioned Tuesday that the drug ought to hit the market by December, and that it and associate Biogen are actually speaking with insurers about protection of the medicine.
The businesses’ purpose is “to allow broad and equitable entry for girls with PPD who’re prescribed this drug,” Sage Chief Government Officer Barry Greene mentioned in an organization information launch. The hope is for sufferers to have the ability to get the medication, “the place potential, with little to no co-pay no matter monetary means.” He added that the 2 firms may even assist cowl prices or present the drug free to sure sufferers.
Psychological well being specialists have welcomed the drug’s approval, not simply because it presents a brand new method to deal with postpartum despair but additionally as a result of it “seems to be fast-acting,” Dr. Catherine Monk, chief of the Division of Girls’s Psychological Well being within the Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology on the Columbia College Vagelos School of Physicians and Surgeons in New York Metropolis, advised CNN.
In a single firm trial, Zurzuvae improved depressive signs in as little as three days.
Previous to Zurzuvae’s approval, choices to deal with postpartum despair orally included selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), however these antidepressants “take weeks to kick in and should proceed being taken every day for at the least six to 12 months,” Dr. Katrina Furey, a psychiatrist specializing in girls’s psychological well being and reproductive psychiatry and a scientific teacher at Yale College, advised CNN.
Nonetheless, SSRIs usually value a lot much less: Prozac and Zoloft, and their generics, can run lower than $20 a month, in response to Medicine.com.
“It stays to be seen how a lot insurance coverage firms will cowl it or if they are going to require girls to ‘fail’ therapy with cheaper SSRIs earlier than paying for this new therapy,” Furey mentioned. “I hope that isn’t the case and that its value is not going to be a barrier to accessing this therapy.”
The $15,900 value “raises substantial accessibility considerations, particularly after we nonetheless don’t know the way it’ll be coated by insurance coverage,” Dr. Lindsay Allen, an assistant professor of emergency medication and a well being economist and well being companies researcher on the Northwestern College Feinberg College of Drugs in Chicago, advised CNN.
“Guaranteeing entry to such remedies is crucial, as they might be lifesaving for brand new moms throughout a weak time,” Allen mentioned. “Suicide is a number one explanation for dying within the first 12 months postpartum.”
Extra data
HealthDay has extra on postpartum despair.
SOURCES: CNN
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