science
FDA Approves Addyi for Women Under 65
The Food and Drug Administration has expanded the use of Addyi, a drug treating low libido, to all women under 65. Sprout Pharmaceuticals is promoting discounted telehealth consultations for prescriptions via Prescribery. Health experts note potential concerns with pharmaceutical-telehealth partnerships and federal anti-kickback laws.
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The Food and Drug Administration in December expanded the use of Addyi, approving the daily drug for all women under 65, @statnews reported. This change broadens access to the treatment for low libido in premenopausal women, which has been on the market for more than a decade following a controversial initial approval.
Sprout Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Addyi, has shared details on its Instagram account, in Facebook ads, and on its website about obtaining quick consultations for prescriptions.
With a special code PINKPILL, women can secure a telehealth visit for just $10 to discuss an Addyi prescription. These consultations and discounts are managed by Prescribery, a telehealth company that partners with drugmakers to facilitate patient discussions with doctors about specific products. Prescribery is one of several such companies working in this space.
“We give them the coupon codes that they can use, and they get to market it to drive additional business,” said Prescribery’s CEO and CFO Ross Pope. “That’s sort of our arrangement, where they’re driving more business, both for them and for us,” Pope added. Telehealth companies can receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in pharma fees a year.
Federal laws prohibit financial kickbacks to induce prescribing. “These discount structures are one more piece of the same puzzle,” said Daniel Eisenkraft Klein, a postdoctoral fellow at the Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
“It’s this big financial architecture that’s every step of the way designed to move patients toward the specific drug cheaply and quickly,” Klein stated.
