That will be $300 please...

I was very excited last week when I went to pick up Camden's Pulmicort. This is his inhaled corticosteroid steroid that we use in his nebulizer. Because there is no generic version available our co-payment is $35 per month. That's $420 per year. The reason I was excited was that they gave me a generic version of budesonide which is the actual name of the drug in Pulmicort. Score! We only pay $10 per month for generics so that means we'll save $300 per year on this drug. He's also on prevacid redi-tabs and there's no generic for that so that's another $420 per year. Luckily his albuterol is only $10 a month or $120 per year. He's on special vitamins as well and those aren't covered at all by insurance. He consumes an enormous amount of enzymes per year with an astronomical price tag but thankfully we're getting them for free until he is three years old. If you total up his drug (not including the vitamins) we're paying about $960 per year. So, a $300 savings is huge. That is why I was crushed to hear this afternoon that AstraZeneca, the maker of Pulmicort has sued everyone making the generics. They were successful so we can no longer get the generics. Thanks AstraZeneca, I am now $300 poorer.

AstraZeneca claims there patent on budesonide extends through 2018 and they have pediatric exclusivity though 2019. How do they have pediatric exclusivity for the exact same drug for a year longer? Beyond bizarre.

I guess the consolation news is that AstraZeneca has settled with one of the companies and agreed to let them produce a generic starting in December of 2009. I'm not sure why they would do that but there must be more to this story. I look forward to having $300 more in my pocket starting in 2009.