New postpartum depression drug gets almost $16,000 price tag, raising questions about access

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The Food and Drug Administration has just approved Zurzuvae, the first postpartum depression pill. Doctors say it's taken every day for 14 days. Before this, postpartum depression was only treated through injection.

A newly approved medication to treat postpartum depression will cost $15,900 per 14-day course, before insurance, when it reaches the market later this year, raising concerns among doctors and researchers that some patients may have trouble paying for the drug.

Mental health specialists welcomed the approval of Zurzuvae this summer, not just because it presents a new way to treat postpartum depression but also specifically because it “appears to be fast-acting,” said Dr. Catherine Monk, chief of the Division of Women’s Mental Health in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The current options to treat postpartum depression orally are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, antidepressants that “take weeks to kick in and must continue being taken on a daily basis for at least six to 12 months,” said Dr. Katrina Furey, a psychiatrist in private practice specializing in women’s mental health and reproductive psychiatry, and a clinical instructor at Yale University.

Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS Feed | Omny Studio The $15,900 price “raises substantial accessibility concerns, especially when we still don’t know how it’ll be covered by insurance,” said Dr. Lindsay Allen, an assistant professor of emergency medicine and a health economist and health services researcher at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

 

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