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Medicine that costs $1 to make raised in price from $13.50 to $750.00
The head of a US pharmaceutical company has defended his company's decision to raise the price of a 62-year-old medication used by Aids patients by over 5,000%. Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the rights to Daraprim in August.
CEO Martin Shkreli has said that the company will use the money it makes from sales to research new treatments. The drug is used treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic affliction that affects people with compromised immune systems.
After Turning's acquisition, a dose of Daraprim in the US increased from $13.50 (£8.70) to $750. The pill costs about $1 to produce, but Mr Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager, said that does not include other costs like marketing and distribution.
Cost of Daraprim Medication Raised By Over 50 Times
BBC is reporting on a massive price hike of an essential drug used by AIDS patients:
The head of a US pharmaceutical company has defended his company's decision to raise the price of a 62-year-old medication used by Aids patients by over 5,000%. Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the rights to Daraprim in August. CEO Martin Shkreli has said that the company will use the money it makes from sales to research new treatments.
The drug is used treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic affliction that affects people with compromised immune systems. After Turning's acquisition, a dose of Daraprim in the US increased from $13.50 (£8.70) to $750. The pill costs about $1 to produce, but Mr Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager, said that does not include other costs like marketing and distribution. "We needed to turn a profit on this drug," Mr Shkreli told Bloomberg TV. "The companies before us were just giving it away almost." On Twitter, Mr Shkreli mocked several users who questioned the company's decision, calling one reporter "a moron".
Why not switch to a generic pyrimethamine tablet? They don't exist right now, according to the New York Times (story includes examples of other recent price hikes):
With the price now high, other companies could conceivably make generic copies, since patents have long expired. One factor that could discourage that option is that Daraprim's distribution is now tightly controlled, making it harder for generic companies to get the samples they need for the required testing.
The switch from drugstores to controlled distribution was made in June by Impax, not by Turing. Still, controlled distribution was a strategy Mr. Shkreli talked about at his previous company as a way to thwart generics.
The drug is also used to treat malaria and appears on the World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines. Toxoplasmosis infections are a feline gift to the world.
(Score: 5, Informative) by mmcmonster on Tuesday September 22 2015, @09:09PM
That's nothing.
Digoxin is a commonly used cardiac medication. It's on the World Health Organization list of essential medications and has been used as a medication since the late 1700s. It used to cost $5 for a month's supply as a generic medication. It's now as high as $38 for a month's supply.
Colchicine is another one. Very commonly used to treat Gout. Used to cost $5 a month, now as much as $135 a month.
There are some great cardiac medications that went generic a few years ago but the prices a staying stubbornly high for unclear reasons. (ie: Lipitor/atorvastatin, pacerone/amiodarone, norvasc/amlodipine, toprol xl/metoprolol succinate)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2015, @09:31PM
I remember reading about collusion.
India and Brasil have some major players in generic drugs. Big Pharma pay them off to limit or avoid producing generic versions of recently out-of-patent drugs, in order to support the continued sale of branded (and expensive) drugs - generic makers make money for doing nothing, and the Big Pharma makes out because profit from branded drugs outweigh bribe to the generic makers.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday September 23 2015, @02:21AM
One of the things that strikes me about this whole conversation, is pricing. Others mention pills that cost $20 each, the article is all about a pill that costs ~$759 each. You mention a drug that costs ~$5 for a month's supply.
And, all the while, there are still people in the world who can't afford $5 per year for drugs. The spectrum of wealth and poverty in this world is just so damned wide! We talk about the one percenters, in various contexts. Holy crap - the people who can afford a regimen of pills that cost $750 each? Those are the top one percent of the top one percent.
My own health care plan sucks balls. I don't know how good your might be - but however good or bad it is, there are people in the world who can only dream of having it.
And, all the while, that richest .001% of the world population continue to get richer by being opporunistic parasites, like the sumbitch in TFS. He doesn't care how many thousands, or tens of thousands of people die, so long as he maximizes profits.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday September 23 2015, @03:19AM
Amlodipine is one I know of. Felodipine became generic a few years ago, and for a while the price was fair. Then something happened, and now felodipine costs $1 per pill in the US. I was baffled, because I knew it was generic. Maybe this is what happened. I went through a list of around 20 of the -dipine drugs, trying to find a cheaper one. They're all expensive, and amlodipine is merely the cheapest of the lot at about $0.40 per pill, if you order it from a Canadian pharmacy.
We may just drop those drugs altogether. There are other ways to manage high blood pressure.