The newspaper articles were gut wrenching. One recounted how a man sobbed as he phoned friends and family to raise money to pay for his wife’s expensive medication. Another featured the tales of patients struggling with their insurance companies, depleting their savings and taking out second mortgages on their homes to pay for medical treatment.
The articles were published in the Wall Street Journal between November 16 and December 28, 2005. Geeta Anand, who wrote the stories, examined how the high cost of medications affects patients, their families, insurance companies and healthcare providers.
In two of her four articles, Anand singled out Genzyme, a Massachusetts-based biotech company, which makes the only available treatment for Gaucher disease, a rare illness that results in organ swelling and bone damage. She asked: “Why is the price of Genzyme’s drug for Gaucher disease about $200,000 a year for the average patient?” She went on to note that “the company makes a profit of more than 90 percent, excluding marketing and corporate costs, but including capital depreciation.”
