Regeneron’s Billionaire Founder Battles The Drug Pricing System
Leonard Schleifer, cofounder of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, criticizes the pricing practices of other drug companies. But Regeneron, like other biotech firms, spends huge sums to find new cures and charges accordingly. Its eye drug, Eylea, costs $11,000 a year per eye; Dupixent, which treats skin rashes, can run up to $37,000 a year; and a cholesterol treatment costs $14,000 per year. Even scarier, these prices are actually cheap by pharma standards.
Schleifer wrote to Forbes claiming that Regeneron believes in “responsible pricing.” The company submitted to external review to come up with a fair price for both Dupixent and its cholesterol treatment, which he says are unprecedented steps that set an example of how it is possible to make medical advances while also providing them at fair prices…
