Celgene Accused of Gouging on Revlimid Price

October 1, 2020

A congressional probe headed by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a scathing 45 page report detailing Celgene’s repeated price increases for multiple myeloma drug Revlimid. The report revealed that the drug maker hiked prices over 20 times to hit aggressive sales targets.  In 2005, Revlimid was launched at a price of $215 per pill. Now the drug now comes in at $763 per pill, or $16,023 per month. In a Saturday morning email to a colleague, Celgene’s then-executive vice president Mark Alles wrote, “I have to consider every legitimate opportunity available to us to improve our Q1 performance.”

These exorbitant price increases cast further doubt on industry claims that such increases are necessary and appropriate due to the costs and risks of research and growing rebates to middlemen. Read more here.

(Source: Eric Sagonowsky, FiercePharma October 1, 2020)

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