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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: 2) by frojack on Wednesday September 23 2015, @02:19AM
Its just policy, and probably not enforceable when Some big Pharmacy sends in a bulk order. You can hardly hold up shipment until you get names of every patient, because as a manufacturer you have no right to that information. I think its pretty much a bluff.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Wednesday September 23 2015, @02:24AM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 2) by tathra on Wednesday September 23 2015, @04:00AM
just know that the possession or exchange (regardless of whether any money changed hands) of any prescription-only drug without a prescription is a crime, as is possession of any prescription drug outside of its prescription bottle. its usually only a misdemeaner instead of felony if its not a controlled substance, but its still a crime. our drug laws are fucking ridiculous.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Wednesday September 23 2015, @01:45PM
just know that the possession or exchange (regardless of whether any money changed hands) of any prescription-only drug without a prescription is a crime, as is possession of any prescription drug outside of its prescription bottle. its usually only a misdemeaner instead of felony if its not a controlled substance, but its still a crime. our drug laws are fucking ridiculous.
This is a law that needs to be broken for the purpose of duplicating this medicine, so therefore this is a law that needs to go by the wayside, and enforcing it is just as immoral as enforcing "whites only" laws.
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 2) by tathra on Wednesday September 23 2015, @06:14PM
just this one? no, all drug prohibition laws need to be broken and ignored. any and all drug prohibitionary laws hinge upon removing self-sovereignty from citizens. so long as such laws exist at all, everyone in the countries were they exist are literal slaves.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Wednesday September 23 2015, @07:36PM
This is a law that needs to be broken for the purpose of duplicating this medicine
just this one?
No, I didn't say just this one. I simply highlighted this one as a great example.
no, all drug prohibition laws need to be broken and ignored. any and all drug prohibitionary laws hinge upon removing self-sovereignty from citizens. so long as such laws exist at all, everyone in the countries were they exist are literal slaves.
I agree with you completely.
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 23 2015, @02:38AM
> Its just policy, and probably not enforceable when Some big Pharmacy sends in a bulk order. You can hardly hold up shipment until you get names of every patient,
You can require that when the order is placed that all the paperwork is filled out for it to be accepted. Sure the pharmacy can cheat, but you can threaten to stop selling it to them if you catch them cheating. Once a tracking system is in place for one drug, that can be used for all drugs. There is sooo much money on the table here that all the big companies in the supply chain can afford to jump through these hoops.