BOSTON, Ind., July 8 (UPI) -- Boston-based NitroMed reportedly is pricing its heart medication intended for African-Americans at $1.80 a pill, or higher than what analysts expected.
Federal regulators recently approved the drug called BiDil, mainly targeted at African-Americans. But the pricing has raised questions among some critics despite the company's generous charity program to go with it.
At $1.80 a pill, a patient could be paying at least $5.40 and as much as $10.40 a day, depending on the dosage, The New York Times reported Friday.
Under the company's charity program, a patient with no prescription drug insurance coverage can get BiDil at $25 a month, the report said. Poor patients without such coverage will get it free, the company said.
Some critics view the drug as too expensive, particularly in view of the support of BiDil by black doctors' groups, the Times said. One medical ethicist said the charity program is a way to blunt criticism about the drug's cost. The company says its program is more generous than the industry standard.
