Cost of Drug Increases 5,000 Per Cent Overnight

November 6th, 2015

Awake Goy

Turing Pharamaceutical increases cost of drug 5,000 % overnight.

The cost of a 62-year-old drug that sold for $13.50 a pill was increased overnight to $750 a pill. This 5,000 per cent increase raises the annual cost of treatment using the drug to hundred of thousands of dollars more than usual for some patients. Turing Pharmaceuticals owns rights to the drug, Daraprim, which costs about $1 to make.

Daraprim is used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasite infection that can cause life-threatening problems for people whose immune systems have been compromised, as in AIDS or some cancer patients. It is also used to treat malaria and babies born to women who become infected with the parasite during pregnancy. Daraprim is the treatment of choice for those medical conditions. Dr. Judith Aberg of the School of Medicine at Mount Sinai said the price increase could force hospitals to use alternative therapies that may not be as effective as Daraprim.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association sent a joint letter to Turing calling the price increase for Daraprim “unjustifiable for the medically vulnerable patient population” and “unsustainable for the health care system.” Under federal rules for discounts and rebates, Medicaid and certain hospitals will be able to get the drug inexpensively; but private insurers, Medicare, and hospitalized patients will have to pay an amount closer to $750 a pill.

Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing, said: the drug is so rarely used that the impact on the health system would be minuscule. “This isn’t the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is is trying to stay in business.” He said many of the patients use the drug for far less than a year and that the price was now more in line with those of other drugs for rare diseases. However, he did promise that the hike in price would not prevent poor people from getting the pill.