Post #404,764
9/21/15 8:56:53 PM
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No shame indeed
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2015/09/18/company-hikes-price-5000-drug-fights-complication-aids-cancer-daraprim/32563749/Turing Pharmaceuticals of New York raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill last month, shortly after purchasing the rights to the drug from Impax Laboratories. Turing has exclusive rights to market Daraprim (pyrimethamine), on the market since 1953.
Daraprim fights toxoplasmosis, the second most common food-borne disease, which can easily infect people whose immune systems have been weakened by AIDS, chemotherapy or even pregnancy But rest assured, it will all go to toxoplasmosis research... (Why does the cynic in me thinks any "new and improved" version will check in at $7,500/pill and Daraprim will disappear entirely overnight? )
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Post #404,765
9/21/15 9:01:28 PM
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62 years...
Seems ripe for a generic at that price. Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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Post #404,767
9/21/15 10:10:15 PM
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Stuck between FDA approval and a small market in the US
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Post #404,769
9/22/15 8:23:51 AM
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Rights to "old generics" are being bought up by Big Pharma.
Who then just jacks up the prices to as high as they like. My wife has seen this in her practice and it really pisses her off. Having served on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Consumer Consortium years ago, I know these claims are true. I know that trials are designed to produce results favorable to manufacturers, and when the results are unfavorable they are hidden from physicians, the FDA and consumers until untoward events are too big to ignore.
I know that some medical journals, like many research docs, are funded by pharmaceutical companies, and that academic papers are often not as objective as we would wish.
Not even the Supreme Court seems to be on the consumer’s side. In 2013, by a 5 to 4 vote, the Court ruled that 80 percent of all drugs are exempt from legal liability.
Ironically, generic drugs account for 80 percent of all prescriptions written in America. And in 2013, federal prosecutors tried to get the Supreme Court to end “pay for delay” deals that profit drug companies while adding billions of dollars annually to consumers’ drug bills. These deals involve paying generic drug competitors to delay release of their cheaper versions of brand-name drugs.
A recent op ed. in The New York Times by physician-writer Dr. Peter Bach revealed that drug prices are skyrocketing because “companies are taking advantage of a mix of laws that force insurers to include essentially all expensive drugs in their policies. Examples of companies exploiting fault lines abound,” Bach says, pointing out that companies “buy up the rights to old inexpensive generic drugs, lock out competitors and raise prices.” http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/01/1398475/-Is-Big-Pharma-Getting-Away-with-Murder
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Post #404,776
9/22/15 9:33:34 AM
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These are "orphan drugs", i.e. low demand drugs.
Critical to the patient, but too few patients to bother with. Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #404,770
9/22/15 9:11:43 AM
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should be fair to use their execs for target practice should it not?
you can kill people for America at age 18 but need to be 21 to buy a beer
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Post #404,810
9/22/15 10:08:02 PM
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Yep. Let's aim a 200% tax rate at 'em...
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Post #404,812
9/22/15 10:51:10 PM
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I was thinking more along the lines of true capitalism
what price for your product do you feel your well being is worth? you can kill people for America at age 18 but need to be 21 to buy a beer
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Post #404,779
9/22/15 1:54:45 PM
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Re: No shame indeed
Under fire for buying the rights to a 62-year-old drug and raising the price from less than $20 all the way to $750, former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli is insisting that he did the right thing because before the drug's potentially lifesaving treatment for toxoplasmosis was just too cheap, as if somehow he's doing people a favor by charging more. Shkreli even suggested that the drug is not now overpriced:
“We know, these days, in modern pharmaceuticals, cancer drugs can cost $100,000 or more, whereas these drugs can cost a half of a million dollars,” he explained. “Daraprim is still under-priced relative to its peers.”
Many of the most expensive drugs, though, are ones that have recently been developed where the pharmaceutical company is recouping the costs of development and testing (while profiting handsomely, of course). A drug that's been around for more than half a century is usually a different story, at least until greedy hedge funders get involved.
“This drug was making $5 million in revenue,” he said with a smile. “And I don’t think you can find a drug company on this planet that can make money on $5 million in revenue.”
Not even when the pill costs $1 to manufacture and is being sold for $13.50 or $18, depending who you listen to? Yes, that's another of Shkreli's defenses, coming somewhat after the fact:
He said that media reports had all overstated the price increase, as from $13.50 to $750. The real original price, he said, was $18 per tablet making it merely a 4000% increase in price, not a 5500% increase.
That's not outrageous at all, then! Either way, the drug's price prior to Shkreli getting his hands on it was already a dramatic price increase after a previous time rights to it changed hands. But when Shkreli says "I don’t think you can find a drug company on this planet that can make money on $5 million in revenue," what he's really saying is that he wants to make more profit, not that the profit level on this particular drug was unsustainable for people who aren't greedy leeches on society. Shkreli has also tried to defend himself by claiming that his company will use the profits to develop alternative treatments for toxoplasmosis ... except doctors say they weren't really looking for an alternative. They'd just like to have this one at a reasonable price.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/21/1423506/-Hedge-funder-defends-700-per-pill-price-increase-It-s-still-under-priced?detail=hide
Satan (impatiently) to Newcomer: The trouble with you Chicago people is, that you think you are the best people down here; whereas you are merely the most numerous.
- - - Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" 1897
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