A Huge Overnight Increase in a Drug’s Price Raises Protests

[Unknown Beatle]

Martin Shkreli is the founder and chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, which raised the price of the drug Daraprim to $750 a tablet from $13.50.

Specialists in infectious disease are protesting a gigantic overnight increase in the price of a 62-year-old drug that is the standard of care for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection.

The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“What is it that they are doing differently that has led to this dramatic increase?” said Dr. Judith Aberg, the chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She said the price increase could force hospitals to use “alternative therapies that may not have the same efficacy.”

Turing’s price increase is not an isolated example. While most of the attention on pharmaceutical prices has been on new drugs for diseases like cancer, hepatitis C and high cholesterol, there is also growing concern about huge price increases on older drugs, some of them generic, that have long been mainstays of treatment.

~Snip~

In August, two members of Congress investigating generic drug price increases wrote to Valeant Pharmaceuticals after that company acquired two heart drugs, Isuprel and Nitropress, from Marathon Pharmaceuticals and promptly raised their prices by 525 percent and 212 percent respectively. Marathon had acquired the drugs from another company in 2013 and had quintupled their prices, according to the lawmakers, Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, and Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland.

More: NYTimes

Fucking smug face on that asshole. Becoming very wealthy is more important to him than the health of people in need.

[yeoman6987]

1. Aren't prescription 12 dollars a month regardless of price

I don't think I have heard anyone paying over 20 dollars for a 30-day prescription. I am not sure about seniors on part D though. They may be cheaper. Not sure about ACA but that has reduced all costs and nobody is totally without insurance anymore. So are we upset the insurance companies have to pay the large costs? That a new one.

[LiberalArkie]

2. I have an inhaler that I need, but my copay on it is $275.00 for 1 month that is after I

have met my deductible. One other is now $57 a month after deductible. I am on part D with Aetna. Generally if the retail is $75 for 30 pills the copay will be about $50. I have some that are just $5 for 30 pills, but retail is about $15.

[Laurian]

4. Senior, here. You hit the dreaded "donut hole" quickly and

pay dearly for prescription drugs at that point ....$12 a month? My husband is in the donut hole.

I use only a prescription drug for glaucoma and I have to pay $35 a month. I asked the pharmacist how much it would be if I didn't have insurance. Answer $350.

Anyone who cannot afford insurance certainly cannot afford $350 a month for one medication. What happens to them?

Pharmaceuticals is the biggest scam going!

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

5. I pay $35 for a 30 day supply of most of my prescriptions

The "actual" cost is so much I will be thrust into the infamous Part D "donut hole" before the end of the year. After that I'll pay 100% of the cost of the drugs.

Part D prohibits the government from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for better prices, as the VA does. This is what happens when you apply free market economics to healthcare.

[kcr]

7. No n/t

[tblue37]

8. All of my co-pays for meds went up drastically within a single month, with two going

over $100/month. I can't change my BP med, because it is the only one that works for me, but I did have to give up on two other meds that made life better, but that I can't afford any longer.

Oh, and I have "good" insurance!

[WinkyDink]

10. Where's you get that "$12" figure from?

[DawgHouse]

13. No, what made you think that? nt

[Humanist_Activist]

19. What planet are you from, seriously, I work for a prescription processor, 12 dollars would be a...

floor, not a ceiling.

[peacebird]

3. Clearly, check out this schmucks facebook comments... What a jerk!

[Glassunion]

17. You should have linked to the facebook...

I read your post then clicked on your DU signature thinking it was a link to said schmuck...

I was shocked, SHOCKED I tell you!

Lol...

[Dustlawyer]

6. What a punk!

[alarimer]

9. Most salient fact: hedge fund manager.

THAT is why the drug price dramatically increased. Because the owner of a "tech start-up" (read: libertarian asshole, like most techies) is a former hedge fund manager, who knows only how to squeeze blood from a stone. The only thing that matters is profit. They buy company, lay off a bunch of people, then raise prices through the roof.

THIS is capitalism and also why we need strict price controls on drugs.

[WinkyDink]

11. EXACTLY! The only shocking element is why the price isn't HIGHER! What does HE care? He'll have

enough $$$ to pay any amount.

[Nye Bevan]

12. I don't know how this guy can look at himself in the shaving mirror each morning.

I wouldn't be able to.

[Initech]

14. And it probably all goes to executive salaries and advertising.

[Spirochete]

15. Ironic

A drug to treat one parasite, being sold by another...

[Arugula Latte]

16. Look at this 32-year-old d-bag:

"He started MSMB Capital, a hedge fund company, in his 20s and drew attention for urging the Food and Drug Administration not to approve certain drugs made by companies whose stock he was shorting."

[Glassunion]

18. I'm no fan of violence.

In fact I abhor it, and could never encourage myself, or anyone else for that matter to do such...

But something about that smug face makes me want to Falcon Punch his teeth out through the back of his head.

[Comrade Grumpy]

20. China executes criminals like this guy. We reward them.

[Iggo]

21. If a thing happens to him that happens to guys like him, I won't lose any sleep.