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For those who want to daydream about the potential value of Leronlimab, Merck got approval today for their therapy for a rare lung condition.

The therapy, branded Winrevair, is approved for treating pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), which affects about 40,000 people in the United States.

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-p...024-03-26/

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Winrevair is a biologic drug designed to grab onto and trap proteins called activins that are overproduced in PAH. These proteins cause the walls of a person’s blood vessels to keep growing and thicken over time.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/26/health/winreva...index.html

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Activin production is driven by TGF-b which leronlimab downregulates. Elevated intracellular CA2+ is also associated with arterial wall thickening also downregulated by leronlimab.

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The cost to most patients will be about $238K/year.

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Nader had originally said leronlimab would cost $120,000 a year. A week after I made the argument here that leronlimab should be priced at $32,000 a year that became the new price. I based that price on competition and self distribution. What I never mentioned was it wasn't nice to be a greedy SOB because I thought that argument wouldn't make a difference. Of course after the agreement was signed for distribution it became $60,000 because the distributor was getting around a 50% cut.