Price of APP Pharmaceuticals' heparin goes up

As the only supplier of uncontaminated heparin, APP Pharmaceuticals has sent a letter to its customers announcing that it’s raising the price of its product. The Schaumburg, Ill., firm explained that the dramatic increase in raw material costs, the need to secure an uninterrupted delivery of the active ingredient, the increased costs associated with additional required testing, and the hiring of additional employees to handle the steep demand for its product have prompted the increase in its heparin price. In dialysis patients, this price increase amounts to about six cents per 1000 units of heparin or 48 cents per dialysis treatment. Faced with no other alternative, hospitals are just glad that APP has averted a shortage of this life-sustaining product.

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