USA: Bernie Sanders holds pharmaceutical labs accountable

US Senator Bernie Sanders intends to send Monday a letter to the Catalyst Pharmaceuticals laboratory asking him to justify his decision to charge $ 375,000 a year (327,500 euros) at the list price a treatment that was freely accessible for years.

Firdapse is used against Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome, a rare neuromuscular disease that affects approximately one in 100,000 people in the United States.

Bernie Sanders, according to his letter dated February 4 put at the disposal of Reuters by his services, asks Catalyst to specify the financial and non-financial factors which led him to fix this tariff.

For years, patients were able to obtain free Firdapse from Jacobus Pharmaceuticals, a small laboratory that offered it as part of a compassionate use program of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

This program allows patients with rare diseases to access experimental drugs outside of a clinical trial when there is no viable alternative.

............