K-V PHARMACEUTICAL COMMENTS ON ACOG AND SMFM INFORMATION UPDATE REGARDING HYDROXYPROGESTERONE CAPROATE – FDA-APPROVED MAKENA™ AND COMPOUNDED 17P
St. Louis, MO – October 13, 2011 – K-V Pharmaceutical Company (the “Company”) (NYSE: KV.A/KV.B) appreciates that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) have issued an information update that ensures healthcare providers, patients, and the payer community have the facts regarding FDA-approved Makena™. The information update emphasizes that previous ACOG and SMFM statements regarding Makena were not intended to be used by private or public payers as a basis for interfering with the medical judgment of healthcare providers or denying patient access to Makena. It also states that physicians should understand the inherent differences between an FDA-approved manufactured product and a compounded preparation, and that ACOG and SMFM’s previous statements were not meant to suggest that Makena and compounded 17P are identical products.
Healthcare providers understand that evidence-based medicine is the foundation of clinical practice. Evidence from the NICHD MFMU Network study (Meis, et al.) supporting the use of hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17P) was based on drug manufactured under FDA’s Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) conditions, and not on drug made using compounding processes or obtained from compounding pharmacies. The drug used in the NICHD study is available today as FDA-approved Makena.
Access to FDA-approved Makena for clinically-indicated patients is an important public health priority. Certain payer coverage policies have been influenced by a belief that unapproved compounded 17P formulations are the same as Makena. These policies should be modified to ensure that clinically-indicated patients have unencumbered access to FDA-approved Makena, consistent with their healthcare provider’s medical judgment.
As part of our commitment to patients, we have made substantial efforts to work with the payer community, and patient co-pays for Makena are averaging approximately $12 per injection
For details regarding the Makena financial assistance program for clinically-eligible patients, please visit www.makena.com.
The full text of the ACOG and SMFM information update is available at http://www.acog.org/~/media/Announcements/20111013MakenaLtr.ashx.
About K-V Pharmaceutical Company
K-V Pharmaceutical Company is a specialty branded pharmaceutical company with a primary focus in the area of women’s healthcare. As such, we are committed to advancing the health of women across all the stages of their lives.
For further information about K-V Pharmaceutical Company, please visit the Company’s corporate Website at www.kvpharmaceutical.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains various forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “PSLRA”) and that may be based on or include assumptions concerning the operations, future results and prospects of the Company. Such statements may be identified by the use of words like “plan,” “expect,” “aim,” “believe,” “project,” “anticipate,” “commit,” “intend,” “estimate,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “potential” and other expressions that indicate future events and trends.
All statements that address expectations or projections about the future, including without limitation, statements about product development, product launches, regulatory approvals, governmental and regulatory actions and proceedings, market position, acquisitions, sale of assets, revenues, expenditures, resumption of manufacturing and distribution of products and the impact of the recall and suspension of shipments on revenues, and other financial results, are forward-looking statements.
All forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risk and uncertainties. In connection with the PSLRA’s “safe harbor” provisions, the Company provides the following cautionary statements identifying important economic, competitive, political, regulatory and technological factors, among others, that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those set forth or implied by the forward-looking statements and related assumptions.
Such factors include (but are not limited to) the following:
This discussion is not exhaustive, but is designed to highlight important factors that may impact the Company’s forward-looking statements. Because the factors referred to above, as well as the statements included under the captions Part I, Item 1A—“Risk Factors,” Part II, Item 7—“Management‘s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and elsewhere in the Company’s 2011 Form 10-K, could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by the Company or on the Company’s behalf, you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements.
All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements in this “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and the risk factors that are included under Part I, Item 1A – “Risks Factors” in the Company’s 2011 Form 10-K, as supplemented by the Company’s subsequent SEC filings. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and the Company is under no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this release.
New factors emerge from time-to-time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict which factors will arise, when they will arise and/or their effects. In addition, the Company cannot assess the impact of each factor on its future business or financial condition or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.