For people suffering from any of a variety of arthritis symptoms, Humira is a great way to cut out the pain in their joints and get back to living their lives more like they normally do. Humira is actually an anagram. It stands for Human Monoclonal Antibody in Rheumatoid Arthritis. While that’s a patent name for the drug, it’s also been called Adalimumab. Regardless of how it’s called, Humira does the same things to help stop the degenerative effects of arthritis and make the user’s body hurt less. It might not rebuild lost cartilage in joints but Humira significantly reduces pain from arthritis and other inflammation. Below you will find the latest Humira price, side effects, and other information.

Since 2008, adalimumab has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of several different kinds of arthritis. These include rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriatic arthritis (PA), as well as psoriasis, Crohn’s Disease and other inflammatory diseases. Unlike many other medications, it is impossible to take Humira orally as the medicine won’t survive the trip through the digestive system. Humira is administered instead through injections. It is available in 0.8 ML syringes and pens, very similar to the injection system for epinephrine, adrenaline and insulin. Unfortunately, there is no alternative for people who have an aversion to needles.

Humira Cost Information

The Humira price will vary based on the dosage, where the prescription is being purchased, quality of insurance and many other factors. It’s almost impossible to give a specific price because of these factors, but for someone who is paying the full cost of the prescription with no help from an outside agency, a 30 day prescription of Humira can cost around $200. That’s a lot of money, especially for someone with no insurance. Shopping around at different pharmacies can net some small savings but no significant savings should be expected.

For those without insurance, prescription discount cards and entering into pools with other sick people can help to cut down the costs of buying medicine every month. The availability of these programs will vary from place to place but they seem to be popping up everywhere these days, so finding one nearby shouldn’t be a problem. Bear in mind that membership in such groups or organizations may come with monthly dues – everyone is looking to make a bit of money from health care and medicine.

Humira is a product which is still in development. AbbVie Laboratories, the company behind Humira, is still coming up with new applications for their medicine and finding further indicators for treatment when applying Humira to other inflammatory diseases. To date, the company has had some highly profitable years based on their sales of Humira alone. In 2009, Humira made over 5 billion dollars. Only three years later, the drug company nearly doubled their profits for the single prescription medication, making a documented $9.3 billion in sales for 2012.

The drug certainly works and it’s highly popular with people suffering from arthritis pain who don’t want that pain to control their lives anymore. Admittedly, the rate of occurrence of side effects is low, lower than the rates presented by many other arthritis medications on the market. The Humira cost for a monthly prescription might be high, but it’s only so high because people are willing to pay that much for it. Again, the number of diseases which indicate Humira as a potential cure is only increasing as further research and development are performed. Right now, Humira has FDA approval for treatment of the following diseases:

• Rheumatoid Arthritis, for which it reduces or eliminates signs and symptoms. This is one of the first conditions Humira was cleared to treat in the United States;
• Ankylosing Spondylitis or AS, another inflammatory disease known for causing significant hardship and pain to the afflicted;
• Crohn’s Disease, for which it again reduced symptoms and suffering;
• Ulcerative Colitis, where it is tolerated well by the body and highly effective at reducing symptoms. Inflammation or ulcers in the colon are immensely painful when left unmanaged;
• Plaque Psoriasis, even for chronic, painful cases where systemic and photo therapies may not be enough. In this case, combining several effective means of treatment into a single plan is normal;
• Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, an inflammation of joints which affects some young children and hurts just as bad as moderate to severe RA.

The uses of Humira are widespread and it is highly effective at reducing inflammation and all the pains which come from it. The Humira price will probably only continue to rise as more people become reliant on it to settle their arthritis symptoms and help them to move like they used to. There’s no value which can really be placed on a clean bill of health but it’s a sure thing that help like this doesn’t come cheap.