Patients Detail Hurdles, Hassles, High Cost of Prescription Drugs

“If I were 10 percent less mean or 10 percent less stubborn, I’d probably be dead,” Sarah, a multiple sclerosis patient, said when describing her year-long battle to obtain the medication that could alter the course of the incurable condition and extend her productive life for years. Diagnosed at age 37, Sarah said she experienced symptoms of this disease of the central nervous system, which can include numbness, weakness, troubling walking, vision changes, and slurred speech. “I felt like my eyes had fallen out of my head,” she said. Her doctor prescribed medication to lessen the symptoms, and that helped for a while, according to Sarah. But when her symptoms worsened, her doctor prescribed a newer drug called Kesimpta that promised relief but was also very expensive....