March of Dimes

In the last 12 hours, our family has gone from huge supporters of the March of Dimes and the work they do to being grately disgusted by their backdoor politics. As most of you know, during the last 18 weeks of my pregnancy with Zach, I received a weekly progesterone shot. Over 10 years ago research done regarding women's hormones levels during pregnancy revealed that low levels of progesterone in pregnant women sparked preterm labor. Through a certain concentration of progesterone injections, a woman with this complication can remain pregnant for the needed time to make sure her baby is not born too early. To quote an article we read, "It is a compounded drug, widely available, at a cost of about $10 to $20 per injection. In the world of pharmaceuticals this was a bit of a bargain drug. This past week a drug company, KV Pharmaceuticals won FDA approval to be the exclusive manufacturer of this drug which KV Pharma has named Makena. They are planning to charge $1500 per injection for a total cost, per pregnancy, of $30,000!! The current cost is $10 per injection, or $200 per pregnancy. Studies show that approximately 30 women need to be treated with P17 to prevent one preterm birth. At $200 per patient, this is very cost effective. That is an expenditure of $6,000 to save the average of $51,000 per preterm delivery. With current pricing, we will have to spend $9 million dollars in P17 therapy to save $51,000. Does this make sense? And people want to know why health care costs so much. So who pays the bill for these increased costs? We all do through higher taxes and higher healthcare premiums. How much is regulatory approval worth, anyway? That seems to be what we're really arguing about. After all, patients are getting the same drug, in the same formulation, dosed the same way as before. But now it's FDA-Approved!"

It turns out that March of Dimes has been receiving funds from KV Pharma for years and is in full support of their exclusive rights to the shot. So a charitable organization dedicated to the safe keeping of inutero babies and stopping preterm births, has openly supported KV Pharma, the exclusive rights to P17, and continues to take dirty money? And you expect your dedicated fundraisers, most of who had premature babies, to be okay with this? Sorry, cannot do!!! I fully believe that my son born at 36 weeks would have been significantly early if not for those shots. MOD has lost my respect until they can redeem themselves or prove their involvement of a worthy nature in this political triangle.

As always, our family thanks you for your continued support in our fundraising efforts, but due to these recent actions we will not be walking for the MOD this year and in fact will stop our fundraising for them until a clear explanation is provided. We will also be writing letters to our congressmen, MOD, and the FDA. Knowledge and information is key to making informed decisions. We encourage you to get all the facts on this, and every political issue facing our great nation today. We have the right to know, the right to speak, and the right to make our own path. Our families path will be support an organization of honest character dedicated to the well being of the people they serve.

Blog Post about KV Pharma/MOD
http://eliza-grace-micro-preemie.blogspot.com/2011/03/march-of-dimes-and-kv-pharmacueticals.html?spref=fb

Blog Post on Forbes
http://blogs.forbes.com/davidwhelan/2011/03/11/is-kv-pharmaceutical-a-flat-out-evil-company/?partner=yahootix