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Comment & Response
April 22, 2020

Initial Monthly Cost of Tafamidis—the Real Price for Patients

Author Affiliations
  • 1Brigham and Women’s Hospital Amyloidosis Program, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 2Nuclear Medicine Department, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 3Partners Healthcare Specialty Pharmacy, Burlington, Massachusetts
  • 4Cardiovascular Division, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
JAMA Cardiol. 2020;5(7):847-848. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2020.0863

To the Editor We concur entirely with the Viewpoint by Gurwitz and Maurer1 on the high price of tafamidis for the treatment of transthyretin amyloidosis cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM). The authors briefly addressed the potential problem of access and affordability for patients but do not provide details on cost. As this is a disease of the elderly, most patients in the US receiving tafamidis are Medicare beneficiaries. Medicare has a multilayered structure for drug coverage, and patients may be subject to high copayments, which vary depending on several factors, including supplemental insurance. For those with a high copayment, pharmaceutical company–sponsored, income-based financial assistance may be available, and charitable foundations inconsistently have available funds, but both are on a year-to-year basis.

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