Unbelievable.

I really hope this isn't the drug my doctor just prescribed but I am pretty sure it is. I was on it from 26 to 36 weeks (1 shot a week given by my hubs) and this time I started at 16 weeks. I just wrote about how I am not a fan of the hefty co-pay but thankful for the option. Yes, I am thankful that the drug is going to be safer and more regulated. I am even more thankful for my insurance which is pretty good overall and I am hopeful it will cover it. When they were first going to put me on it they asked about what insurance I had because its not covered by everyone. It might be more difficult to get now also, now I get it delivered from a fertility pharmacy. I feel for the other Moms out there who need this drug and won't be able to afford it or won't have it covered by insurance. I hope the makers of the drug, the insurance companies and the government realize our babies are worth it and find a way to make it more affordable and accessible.

The price of preventing preterm labor is about to go through the roof.

A drug for high-risk pregnant women has cost about $10 to $20 per injection. Next week, the price shoots up to $1,500 a dose, meaning the total cost during a pregnancy could be as much as $30,000. That's because the drug, a form of progesterone given as a weekly shot, has been made cheaply for years, mixed in special pharmacies that custom-compound treatments that are not federally approved. But recently, KV Pharmaceutical of suburban St.Louis won government approval to exclusively sell the drug, known as Makena (Mah-KEE'-Nah). The March of Dimes and many obstetricians supported that because it means quality will be more consistent and it will be easier to get. None of them anticipated the dramatic price hike, though — especially since most of the cost for development and research was shouldered by others in the past. "That's a huge increase for something that can't be costing them that much to make. For crying out loud, this is about making money," said Dr. Roger Snow, deputy medical director for Massachusetts' Medicaid program."I've never seen anything as outrageous as this," said Dr. Arnold Cohen, an obstetrician at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia."I'm breathless," said Dr. Joanne Armstrong, the head of women's health for Aetna, the Hartford-based national health insurer.

The whole story...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110310/ap_on_he_me/us_med_premature_birth_drug