Why is Suboxone so expensive?

From a keyword search… Why is Suboxone expensive?
The first answer: Is it really?  Realize that before Suboxone people had no escape from opiate dependence except traditional recovery, and that usually was not helpful until the addict lost everything.  And I mean everything– house, family, job, career, freedom… sometimes even their lives! I’m not even being dramatic here… so in light of that, what is Suboxone worth?  My son was in an automobile accident and is OK but was in the hospital for 5 hours having x-rays.  The charge?  $10,000.00!  A year of Suboxone at the higher dose would be… less than $4,000.00.  Five hours of x-rays, more than twice as expensive as a year of remission of opiate addiction.  In that light Suboxone is a bargain!

But I do see the point that one small pill made by mass production shouldn’t cost anything near $300 to manufacturer… although the company Reckitt -Benckiser, maker of Suboxone, does spend a large amount of money getting the word out to docs, training them, etc.
So many medications are priced in the stratosphere…  the MAOI patch Ensam was priced at around $800 per month when it first came out– their argument was ‘it is cheaper than hospitalization’.  Even in the mid-90’s, the anti-nauseau drug Zofran first cost about $70 per dose– ‘cheaper than an admission to the hospital’.  The new pill for drowsiness, Provigil, was initially close to $9 per pill.

The good news is that Suboxone is generic starting next year.  Watch for new formulations– month-long injections, year-long implantables, skin patches, etc…  That’s Progress!!
SD
Suboxone Talk Zone
Wisconsin Opiate Management Center