Bernie Sanders in Reuters

On Health Care: Pharma companies should justify high drug prices

In the letter, Sanders asked Catalyst to lay out the financial and non-financial factors that led the company to set the list price at $375,000, and say how many patients would suffer or die as a result of the price and how much it was paying to purchase or produce the drug. For years, patients have been able to get Firdapse for free from Jacobus Pharmaceuticals, a small New Jersey-based drug company, which offered it through an FDA program called "compassionate use." The program allows patients with rare diseases access to experimental drugs when there is no viable alternative. Catalyst received FDA approval of Firdapse in November.