Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH priced its new treatment for a deadly lung-scarring disease at $96,000 a year, just higher than Roche Holding AG’s competing product.

Both companies last week received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for their drugs, bringing the first two treatments to the U.S. market for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that kills 60 percent to 80 percent of patients within five years. Roche said it plans to charge $94,000 a year. Because of the chronic nature of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, patients are typically on the drug for life.

Boehringer’s U.S. Chief Executive Officer Paul Fonteyne said the Ingelheim, Germany-based company consulted widely before settling on a price.

“What you end up doing is a lot of interviews and research with patient associations, patients, physicians, payers, and you try to triangulate on a price that on the one hand provides access to the medicine to these parties and on the other hand allows you to recoup your investment,” he said in a telephone interview. The company will also offer financial assistance to patients who can’t afford the drug.

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