A single Entyvio infusion has a wholesale list price of about $8,667 per vial. Most patients need multiple infusions per year, putting the total annual drug cost in the range of $26,000 to $56,000 or more depending on where you are in treatment. What you actually pay out of pocket, though, depends heavily on your insurance type and whether you qualify for financial assistance.
List Price Per Infusion
Entyvio (vedolizumab) is sold as a single-dose vial for intravenous infusion at a wholesale acquisition cost of $8,666.58 per vial. Each infusion uses one vial containing 300 mg of the drug. This is the price before insurance, negotiated discounts, or any financial assistance. It’s the number hospitals and infusion centers use as a starting point.
The subcutaneous version, a self-injectable pen used at home, costs $6,239.94 for a pack of two pens. Each pen delivers a smaller dose (108 mg) but is given every two weeks instead of every eight, so the annual cost works out to a similar range.
How Many Infusions You’ll Need Per Year
Entyvio follows the same dosing schedule for both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. During the first six weeks (the induction phase), you receive three infusions: one at the start, another two weeks later, and a third at week six. After that, you move to a maintenance schedule of one infusion every eight weeks.
In your first year of treatment, that adds up to roughly eight infusions total (three during induction plus about five maintenance doses for the remainder of the year). In subsequent years, you’ll typically need six to seven infusions. At the list price, that translates to approximately $26,000 or more in the first year for the drug alone, with ongoing years averaging around $21,000 to $22,000 at pre-discount pricing. In the U.S., where list prices are higher than in Canada (where those estimates originate), your pre-insurance total is likely higher.
What You’ll Actually Pay Out of Pocket
Very few people pay the full list price. Your real cost depends on the type of insurance you have and how your plan categorizes biologic medications.
If you have commercial (private) insurance, Entyvio is typically covered under your medical benefit rather than your pharmacy benefit, since it’s administered by infusion. That means you’ll owe a percentage as coinsurance rather than a flat copay. For many plans, that coinsurance ranges from 20% to 30% of the allowed amount, which can still mean hundreds or thousands of dollars per infusion before hitting your out-of-pocket maximum.
Medicare and Medicaid handle biologics differently. Medicare Part B generally covers infused drugs at 80% after you meet your deductible, leaving you responsible for the remaining 20% unless you have supplemental coverage. Medicaid coverage and cost-sharing vary by state but tend to have lower out-of-pocket costs.
Infusion Center and Administration Fees
The drug cost is only part of your bill. Every infusion also comes with facility fees and professional service charges from the infusion center or hospital outpatient department. These fees cover the IV setup, nursing time, monitoring during the roughly 30-minute infusion, and use of the chair or room.
Administration fees vary widely depending on where you receive treatment. Hospital outpatient infusion centers tend to charge significantly more than freestanding independent infusion centers. The facility fee alone can range from a few hundred dollars to over $1,000 per visit at a hospital-based site. If your insurance gives you a choice, asking about freestanding infusion centers in your network can meaningfully reduce your total cost.
Copay Assistance for Commercially Insured Patients
Takeda, the company that makes Entyvio, offers a copay assistance program called Entyvio Connect. If you have eligible commercial (non-government) insurance, you may pay as little as $0 per dose, with a maximum benefit of $20,000 per calendar year. This applies to both the IV infusion and the subcutaneous pen.
That $20,000 cap is generous enough to cover most or all of the copay and coinsurance for a full year of treatment for the majority of commercially insured patients. The program does not cover facility or administration fees separately, so those charges still apply based on your plan’s cost-sharing rules. You can enroll through the Entyvio Connect website or ask your gastroenterologist’s office to help you sign up, which most infusion coordinators do routinely.
One important caveat: copay assistance cards cannot be used with government insurance programs like Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, or VA benefits. This is a federal regulation, not a Takeda policy.
Help for Uninsured or Underinsured Patients
If you don’t have insurance or your coverage doesn’t adequately cover Entyvio, Takeda offers a separate patient assistance program called Help At Hand. This program provides the medication at no cost to eligible patients. Eligibility requirements can vary, and the program isn’t available to everyone prescribed a Takeda product. You can check your eligibility or apply through helpathandpap.com.
Independent nonprofit foundations also offer grants to help cover biologic costs for inflammatory bowel disease. Organizations like the Patient Access Network Foundation, the HealthWell Foundation, and the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation maintain assistance funds that open periodically throughout the year. These funds run out quickly, so applying as soon as they open improves your chances.
IV Infusion vs. Subcutaneous Pen Costs
Switching from the IV infusion to the at-home subcutaneous pen can change your cost picture in a few ways. The pen eliminates facility and administration fees entirely, since you inject it yourself at home. However, the pen version may be processed through your pharmacy benefit instead of your medical benefit, which means different copay structures and a separate out-of-pocket maximum.
The trade-off in dosing frequency matters too. The pen requires an injection every two weeks (26 doses per year) compared to roughly six or seven IV infusions annually. At the wholesale level, a year of pen injections costs a comparable amount to IV infusions, but your actual cost depends on which benefit tier your plan assigns it to and how quickly you reach your annual maximum. If your plan has a lower out-of-pocket cap on the pharmacy side, the pen could end up cheaper. If your medical benefit has better coverage for biologics, the infusion may cost you less. Your insurance company or a specialty pharmacy can run the numbers for both options.