Consumer Confidential: Drugmaker gets stingy with its help for needy
by By David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times
Aug 17, 2017
4 minutes
For 14 years, Ed Wright received an expensive prescription medication for free through a drug-industry program intended to assist people with limited or fixed incomes.
Now he's rationing his doses after a change to the program that imposed a $1,100 deductible before he can get a refill.
"I can't afford that," Wright, 75, told me. "When I run out in a few weeks, that's going to be it."
He isn't alone. Industry watchers say soaring drug prices have prompted many pharmaceutical companies to rethink long-standing programs to help subsidize purchases or even give meds away for free.
"More and more people have become aware of these programs, and demand has gone up,"
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