Without the medicine Rachelle Crow takes for her rheumatoid arthritis, the 29-year-old Michigan woman’s face would frequently feel as if it were engulfed in flames. She would barely be able to crawl out of bed. She would have trouble opening or closing her fists or lifting her 3-year-old daughter. Crow can do all those things […]

Julie Wiles of Spring says she found relief from rheumatoid arthritis when she began receiving injections of Enbrel, a drug that costs $2,500 a week. But even with insurance coverage, Wiles can no longer afford Enbrel. Instead, she takes a combination of less expensive drugs and injections that hasn’t been nearly as effective.   Read […]

Novartis still has to win a patent-infringement lawsuit before it can sell Zarxio, the first biosimilar to receive FDA approval, but experts and advocates indicate the potential rollout of the drug is less important than the fact that the approval has smoothed the way for the four biosimilar applications in front of the FDA. Read […]

Last year, when Mariah Leach was pregnant with her son, her rheumatoid arthritis flared up again. She had stopped medication during pregnancy, but when the autoimmune disease, which causes painful and damaging inflammation in joints and elsewhere, resurged, she and her doctors made the difficult decision for her to restart during her third trimester, based […]

The positive impact of biologic medicines for the treatment of many chronic diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, HIV, hepatitis C, Rheumatoid arthritis and others, cannot be understated.  That’s why it’s good news that soon patients and prescribers will have access to cutting edge medicines called biosimilars. Read More

In a move expected to increase competition and lower drug prices, the Food and Drug Administration today approved the first “biosimilar” drug, designed to closely mimic existing drugs grown in living cells. Pharmaceutical companies have been able to produce low-cost generic drugs for three decades, but they haven’t before been able to produce knockoff versions […]

Clearly, there is a real need to ensure the safe and warranted use of prescription pain medications. Yet while regulators debate access restrictions, a part of the conversation that remains unheard is what access limitations mean for patients very much in need of appropriately prescribed medications.