MPNforum Magazine

Incyte Corporation’s marketing and communications people have shown remarkable discipline, intelligence and creativity in the Jakafi roll-out. We like them personally and respect their abilities. But Incyte’s frontal attack on MPN patients’ attitudes and opinions during the opening days of Blood Cancer Awareness month cannot be permitted to stand unchallenged. Selecting MPN heroes, offering new grants to MPN non-profits., ringing opening stock market bells, distributing bracelets and PR packages and all the rest not only seems inappropriate but it does little to advance broad awareness of MPN disease beyond our MPN community.  These activities, financed by Jakafi’s excessively high price, are aimed primarily at MPN patients and caregivers. With monopoly control of a life-sustaining drug, with no short-term competition in sight, one might fairly ask why Incyte is rolling out this expensive marketing blitz at a time blood cancer drug prices are under fire.   Incyte’s exploitation of MPN Awareness Month coupled with the corporation’s response to a patient petition to lower the price of Jakafi are deeply disturbing and lead us to question the Incyte corporate culture. It is the subject of this issue’s lead articles