New ‘breakthrough’ eczema drug doesn’t live up to the hype
Some are calling this new treatment for eczema a breakthrough.
But when you see the word “breakthrough” linked to a new drug, you know what comes next: An unbelievable price tag.
And that’s not all you have to worry about where this new med, with the tongue-twisting name Dupixent, is concerned. Because the side effects could be a potential nightmare.
If you suffer from moderate to severe eczema, I hope you’ll read all the fine print on this one very carefully. Because in exchange for those big bucks, you might end up with a lot more than you bargained for.
Severe eczema is serious business. Besides the constant embarrassment of breakouts that often occur on the face, the relentless itching can trigger chronic insomnia and depression.
So it’s easy to understand how a patient with even a moderate case might be willing to do just about anything to keep it under control.
That kind of desperation is probably what Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals were counting on when they negotiated with insurers to set a stunning list price of $37,000 per year for their new med. The drug is projected to rake in more than $4 billion annually by 2022.
So what will that obscene price tag buy you?
Well, how about this: A professor of dermatology who was quite excited by its approval told the New York Times that Dupixent “appears” to work well.
Really?
Can you imagine a car salesman trying to sell you on a model that costs $37,000 per year to lease by telling you that it “appears” to work well?
But that’s probably the best that can be said about Dupixent, because in what Reuters calls a “pivotal late stage study,” only 39 percent of the volunteers reported it resulted in clear or nearly clear skin.
So basically, what this boils down to is that around one in three patients found the relief they were looking for with this drug. Maybe that’s what passes for a “breakthrough” these days in Big Pharmaland.
The problems with Dupixent, however, don’t end with the price tag. While the Times and Reuters ignored specifics about potential side effects as if they didn’t exist, at least the FDA listed some in its press release.
For example:
- cold sores in the mouth or on the lips
- eye and eyelid inflammation, including redness, swelling, and itching
- pink eye (conjunctivitis), and
- inflammation of the cornea (keratitis) — something that can lead to serious complications that include blindness.
And remember: Time after time with new drugs, we’ve seen the list of known side effects explode as the drugs went from a few hundred users in clinical trials to millions worldwide.
So, before you go asking your doctor to give you an Rx for this med, you might want to try some alternative methods that have been known to provide safe and inexpensive relief from eczema.
For example:
- The National Eczema Association website offers a lot of information on non-drug treatments, including tips about avoiding eczema triggers such as linalool, a common chemical in personal hygiene products.
- Eczema patients rated B-12 vitamin cream as “good” or “very good” in research, while a placebo cream was rated only “moderate” or “poor.”
- In other findings, a daily supplement of DHA omega-3 (a proven anti-inflammatory) created “significant clinical improvement” compared to placebo.
These are just some of the strategies that eczema patients have found useful — and that might just end up keeping both your money and your eyesight from being sacrificed.
“Severe eczema drug is approved by F.D.A.; price tag is $37,000 a year” Katie Thomas, March 28, 2017, The New York Times, nytimes.com
