Which Country Is Erivedge (Vismodegib) Cheapest In? — 2026 Guide

Why does the price differ so much between countries?

Erivedge (vismodegib) is Roche's oral Hedgehog signalling pathway inhibitor, approved for adults with advanced or metastatic basal cell carcinoma who are not candidates for surgery or radiotherapy. It is supplied as 150 mg capsules taken once daily by mouth. Because it carries a strict pregnancy-prevention programme requiring contraception in both female and male patients and prohibits blood or sperm donation during and for a defined period after treatment, prescribing and dispensing controls are more intensive than for many oral oncology drugs, but the underlying supply chain still runs through outpatient retail and specialty pharmacy rather than hospital procurement tenders, and that channel difference shapes how and when its published price is set, updated and disclosed.

Within the Hedgehog-pathway-inhibitor class, Erivedge was the first agent approved and continues to compete for guideline positioning against sonidegib, the other approved Hedgehog inhibitor, as reimbursement decisions are made market by market. How many alternatives are reimbursed in a given country materially affects how favourably any single product's published price looks, since payers with more than one option to choose from can negotiate more aggressively. Because advanced basal cell carcinoma is a rare indication relative to major solid tumours, Erivedge is often evaluated under a country's orphan-drug or rare-cancer pathway, which can produce a different negotiated outcome than a mainstream oncology assessment.

In Türkiye, TİTCK applies external reference pricing to oral oncology products just as it does to biologics: the published price tracks the lowest ex-factory price found across a defined basket of EU reference countries, converted using the fixed "pharmaceutical euro" (Dönemsel Avro Değeri) rather than the live market rate, as published on the TİTCK price list and periodically updated via the Resmî Gazete. Germany evaluates Erivedge under its AMNOG early-benefit-assessment framework, with free pricing for the first months followed by a negotiated price backdated to month seven. NICE in England applies its cost-per-QALY threshold, raised from the long-standing £20,000–£30,000 range to £25,000–£35,000, announced 1 December 2025 and effective from April 2026 (see NICE).

The United States has no equivalent government reference mechanism for an oral oncology drug like Erivedge: list prices are set largely freely by the manufacturer and then negotiated privately with pharmacy benefit managers and insurers, so the headline list price and what any individual patient pays can diverge sharply, a pattern documented across countries in the RAND 2024 international price comparison. Because Erivedge moves through retail and specialty pharmacy rather than hospital tenders, the confidential-discount effect seen with infused biologics is less pronounced, but co-pay assistance programmes and formulary tiering still separate published price from what most patients actually pay. For more on the structural reasons behind Türkiye's published prices, see our explainer on why medicines cost less in Türkiye.

How is the price set in each country?

The table below compares pricing systems, not prices. Each country publishes — or does not publish — its own official list, and that published list is the only figure worth relying on. Follow the link in the last column and read the current entry yourself.

How can I obtain a medicine legally from a lower-price market?

There is a lawful route in most countries, and it starts in the same place everywhere: a valid prescription in your own name, issued by the physician treating you. What differs is the import permit. The procedures below are stated only where they could be verified at the national authority.

United Arab Emirates. MOHAP operates a permit to import medicines for personal use through its Electronic Drug Establishment service. The permit is free and is issued within 3 working days. You log in with a MOHAP account or UAE Pass.

Saudi Arabia. Applications run through the SFDA Controlled Drugs System at cds.sfda.gov.sa, under a guideline published on 14 August 2025. Read the current SFDA regulations page before you travel — the requirements are revised periodically.

Qatar. For non-controlled medicines there is no pre-approval: you may carry up to a 60-day supply through the Green Channel, in the original packaging, with a copy of the prescription and a signed, stamped letter from your doctor. For controlled medicines you need advance approval and must use the Red Channel; supporting documents must be no older than 6 months and in Arabic or English.

Kuwait and Azerbaijan. Confirm the current procedure directly with the national authority before shipping or travelling — Kuwait Ministry of Health and Azerbaijan Tariff Council. We do not publish a step list for these two countries because the procedure could not be verified at source.

1. United Arab Emirates — obtain a prescription in the applicant's own name, issued within the last 3 months.
2. Obtain a medical report from the treating facility, authenticated by the health authority and issued within the last year.
3. Prepare an Emirates ID or passport copy for the applicant.
4. Log in to the MOHAP service with a MOHAP account or UAE Pass and submit the personal-import application.
5. Keep the quantity within the limit: no more than a 1-month supply for controlled medicines, and no more than a 3-month supply for non-controlled medicines.
6. Wait for the decision — the service is free and normally issued within 3 working days.
7. Contact MOHAP on 800 111 11 or at import.export@mohap.gov.ae if the application stalls.

What is named patient supply?

Named patient supply is the international concept behind almost every lawful cross-border medicine route. The clearest codified example is the United Kingdom's MHRA Guidance Note 14, built on Regulation 167 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.

Four conditions define it: the order must be unsolicited; the product must be specified by the prescriber; the prescriber must be directly responsible for the patient; and there must be a genuine special clinical need that no authorised product meets.

The honesty point matters here: the European Court has held that "financial considerations cannot, in themselves" establish a special clinical need. A lower price in another country is not, by itself, a lawful basis for a named-patient import. The lawful bases are clinical.

Is the Erivedge I'm being offered genuine?

No falsified batches of this product have been recorded in WHO's alert series to date. That absence does not prove that any individual pack is authentic — it only means there is no documented incident to cite, and readers should verify each pack on its own merits rather than relying on the absence of a public alert.

Because Erivedge is a capsule dispensed in a carton with a blister strip rather than a single-dose vial, verification depends heavily on checking the outer packaging and the printed batch and expiry information before the blister is ever opened, since a loose strip separated from its carton loses most of its traceable information and, given the drug's teratogenic risk, handling capsules outside their original packaging should always be avoided.

• Check that the outer carton is sealed and shows no signs of having been re-glued, re-taped or opened and re-closed before dispensing.
• Confirm the capsule's colour, print and size match the Roche product information leaflet for the 150 mg strength dispensed.
• Match the batch number and expiry date printed on the carton against the numbers printed on the foil of the blister strip inside — they must be identical.
• Scan the carton's GS1 DataMatrix and confirm it decodes to AI 01 (GTIN), AI 21 (serial number), AI 17 (expiry) and AI 10 (batch).
• If sourced in Türkiye, verify the karekod is registered on the national İlaç Takip Sistemi (İTS) track-and-trace system at its.saglik.gov.tr before dispensing.
• Store the capsules at room temperature, protected from heat and moisture, in their original blister until each dose is taken — never decant capsules into an unlabelled container, and keep them away from anyone who is or could become pregnant.
• Never accept loose capsules sold without their original carton and blister: once separated from that packaging, a capsule cannot be verified against any batch or expiry record. Review our guide to checking that a medicine is genuine and our WHO falsified medicine alerts tracker before dispensing.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Resmî Gazete — Beşeri Tıbbi Ürünlerin Fiyatlandırılmasına Dair Karar No. 11031 — retrieved: 2026-07-28
• TİTCK — published medicine price list — retrieved: 2026-07-28
• MOHAP (UAE) — import medicine for personal use — retrieved: 2026-07-28
• SFDA (Saudi Arabia) — regulations — retrieved: 2026-07-28
• SFDA Controlled Drugs System — retrieved: 2026-07-28
• Qatar MOPH — drug prices — retrieved: 2026-07-28
• Kuwait Ministry of Health — retrieved: 2026-07-28
• Azerbaijan Tariff Council (Tarif Şurası) — retrieved: 2026-07-28
• NICE (United Kingdom) — retrieved: 2026-07-28
• G-BA (Germany) — AMNOG benefit assessment — retrieved: 2026-07-28
• RAND — International prescription drug price comparisons (published 1 Feb 2024) — retrieved: 2026-07-28
• Frontiers in Pharmacology — European hospital price transparency study (9 Mar 2026) — retrieved: 2026-07-28
• MHRA Guidance Note 14 — supply of unlicensed medicinal products — retrieved: 2026-07-28

Country availability pages for this medicine

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