Drug Price Increase: After Public Outrage Drug Company Will Lower Price of Life Saving Drug
After facing a storm of criticism over their decision to raise the cost of an anti-infective drug by more than 5,000 percent, Turing Pharmaceuticals announced that it would roll back the price to ensure that the drug remained affordable to those who need it.
The New York Times reported earlier this week that Turing Pharmaceuticals had raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750, per pill. The drug is used to prevent malaria and treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that is especially dangerous to people with weakened immune systems.
News of the price increase drew ire not only from the consumers but from politicians as well. Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate for the 2016 presidential campaign, took to Twitter to say that the price gouging was outrageous and that she would soon reveal a plan to curtail it. And Donald Trump told reporters at a press conference in South Carolina that Martin Shkreli, the young CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, looked “like a spoiled brat."
"That guy is nothing. He's zero. He's nothing. He ought to be ashamed of himself," said Trump, according to Business Insider.
On Monday Shkreli defended the price increase of the life-saving drug on Bloomberg, saying simply, “We need to turn a profit on the drug.”
Speaking to ABC World News Tonight on Tuesday, Shkreli changed his mind, saying, “We’ve agreed to lower the price of Daraprim to a point that is more affordable and is able to allow the company to make a profit, but a very small profit, and we think these changes will be welcome.”
Animosity directed at the 32-year-old Shkreli has been across the board. But James Hamblin, an MD who writes for The Atlantic, has questioned the collective rage showered over this particular cog in the pharmaceutical machine. “Shkreli is a product, not a cause,” writes Hamblin, “In mocking his hubris we mock a person for operating within a system that we created and continue to subsidize.”
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