Boehringer Ingelheim to cap out-of-pocket inhaler costs
RIDGEFIELD — Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of inhalers, will cap patients’ outof-pocket costs for inhalers, a change made after a U.S. Senate committee launched an investigation of the Ridgefield-based company and several other pharmaceutical giants.
Boehringer Ingelheim announced earlier this month that, starting June 1, eligible patients will pay no more than $35 per month for all of its inhaler products. The new program will “dramatically” decrease costs at the pharmacy counter for the “most vulnerable patients,” including those who are uninsured or underinsured, according to company officials. Following Boehringer Ingelheim’s lead, two of the other companies implicated in the Senate investigation, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, this week also announced $35 monthly maximums for outof-pocket costs for their inhalers.
“The U.S. health care system is complex and often doesn’t work for patients, especially the most vulnerable. While we can’t fix the entire system alone, we are bringing forward a solution to make it fairer,” Jean-Michel Boers, CEO and president of Boehringer Ingelheim USA, said in a March 7 written statement. “We want to do our part to help patients living with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) or asthma who struggle to pay for their medications. This new program supports patients with predictable, affordable costs at the pharmacy counter. We will also continue to advocate for substantive policy reforms to improve the health care system.”
There are some conditions to the new caps. Boehringer Ingelheim’s news release noted that, “government restrictions exclude people enrolled in federal government insurance programs from copay support.”
The company also said it would decrease the list price on some of its inhaler products. In addition, it said it would continue providing significant discounts and rebates off the list price of its medicines to insurers, pharmacy-benefits managers and other parties, “although unfortunately, these reductions are not always passed on to patients.”
Leaders of the Congressional Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which launched the investigation in January, lauded the new efforts to rein in out-of-pocket expenses.
“The three largest manufacturers of inhalers in the world have all committed to cap the cost of inhalers in the U.S. at no more than $35 at the pharmacy counter,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont and committee chairman, said in a statement on Wednesday. “This will significantly cut costs for millions of Americans with asthma and COPD so that they will be able to afford the inhalers that they need.”
The senators’ praise of the new cost caps contrasts with the scathing criticism that they leveled at Boehringer Ingelheim, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Teva when they announced the probe. Sanders and several other HELP Committee members asserted that the companies’ “outrageous” inhaler prices — as high as $525 per month for BI’s devices, according to their initial findings — were forcing patients, particularly those who are uninsured or underinsured, to ration doses or abandon their prescriptions. The senators argued that patients with asthma and COPD who did not have reliable access to inhalers were more likely to get sick or die, worsening the U.S. toll of thousands of deaths annually from such conditions.
BI has been charging “unbelievable amounts” for inhaler products in the U.S. — often 10 times the prices that it charges for the same products in Germany, Japan, Canada, France and the United Kingdom, according to a letter sent to the Connecticut company in January from Sanders; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin; Ben Ray Luján, D-New Mexico; and Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts. They asserted that the company was charging such high prices in the U.S., mainly because of a lack of generic alternatives. Of BI’s seven inhaler products, only one faces generic competition, they said.
The senators’ letter did not provide BIspecific revenues because they said the company does not publicly disclose its U.S. inhaler revenues. But their letter stated: “Boehringer Ingelheim’s efforts to block generic competition have allowed it to make billions of dollars in revenue on its inhaler products while the people whose lives depend on these products struggle to afford them.”
In response, BI issued a statement that defended its pricing of inhalers and denied that it was trying to repress generic competition.
BI’s U.S. headquarters in Ridgefield supports its global headquarters in Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany. It has approximately 1,900 Ridgefield-based employees.