It'll go generic, although there are things the pharma company can do to extend patent protection for six months longer. We'll see if the 2018 date holds.

Latuda is the reason I chose a different insurance plan for next year. With my current high deductible plan, Latuda is $1,000/month. That's about $33 per pill. With my new insurance plan, it should be $15-30/month, and I should be able to get a 90-day supply for the cost of two copays.

Yes the price is ridiculously high. That being said, I work in the biopharm industry, and there are reasons that brand drugs cost what they do. The main one is the company has to recoup the cost of R&D, which is fantastically high. From discovery to drug launch, there are approximately 10,000 molecules researched for every 1 drug that hits the market. None of those other 9,999 make any money for the company, yet there are costs involved in finding the right one that works with the minimum amount of side effects.

The other cost is that of commercializing a drug. At present, it takes about $1.3 Billion dollars to get a drug to market. A massive fraction of that cost is jumping through hoops to get FDA approval.

That's just the way it is, folks. If we want new and better medications and want companies to keep up the research, somebody has to pay. That burden falls on you and your insurance company.