|
More Ortho Evra® News
West Virginia Family Planning is looking to find cheaper birth control pills and Ortho Evra® patches for low-income residents after the state's main supplier raised prices dramatically and without warning.
Public health care agencies around the nation are facing similar problems.
West Virginia Family Planning receives 75 percent of its birth control pill supply and 100 percent of its supply of the Ortho Evra® birth control patch from Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Inc.
Ortho-McNeil raised the price of a 30-day supply of one type of birth control pill from a $0.01 to $21.01. Ortho Evra®'s price jumped from $12.15 to $22.46.
The state program provides contraceptives to about 59,000 low-income people per year.
Ortho-McNeil spokeswoman Julie Keenan said the increase in pricing for Ortho Evra® and birth control pills are in line with federal Medicaid pricing formulas that change every financial quarter.
Reference:
"Hike in contraceptive prices shocks health service," Associated Press, July 2006.
|
