The first pill for postpartum depression approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now available, but experts worry that minority and low-income women, who are disproportionately affected by the condition, won’t have easy access to the new medication.
About 1 in 8 women experience symptoms of postpartum depression, federal data shows. Suicide and drug overdoses are among the leading causes of pregnancy-related death, defined as death during pregnancy, labor or within the first year of childbirth. Black, Indigenous, Hispanic and low-income women are more likely to be affected.
Most antidepressants take six to eight weeks to take full effect. The new drug zuranolone, which patients take daily for two weeks, acts much faster. But the medication, manufactured jointly by Biogen and Sage Therapeutics under the brand name Zurzuvae, comes with a hefty price tag of nearly $16,000 for the two-week course.
Postpartum depression can be treated with a combination of therapy and other antidepressants. But Zurzuvae is only the second medication, and the first pill, that the FDA has approved specifically for the condition.
The first approved drug, brexanolone, also made by Sage Therapeutics, under the brand name Zulresso, costs$34,000 before insurance and requires a 60-hour hospital stay for an IV treatment. Doctors typically must get approval from patients’ health plans before prescribing it, and hospitals must be certified to administer it.
Experts and advocates are urging state Medicaid agencies to make sure the low-income patients who are covered under the joint state-federal program have easy access to Zurzuvae. They want Medicaid managed care plans — and private insurers — to waive any prior authorization requirements and other restrictions, such as “fail-first” approaches that require patients to try other drugs first.
Zurzuvae became available by prescription last month. Several state Medicaid…
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