Company hikes price 5,000% for drug that fights complication of AIDS, cancer

[CatWoman]

A drug treating a common parasite that attacks people with weakened immune systems increased in cost 5,000% to $750 per pill.

At a time of heightened attention to the rising cost of prescription drugs, doctors who treat patients with AIDS and cancer are denouncing the new cost to treat a condition that can be life-threatening.

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, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

“This is a tremendous increase," said Judith Aberg, a spokesperson for the HIV Medicine Association. Even patients with insurance could have trouble affording the medication, she said. That's because insurance companies often put high-price drugs in the "specialty" category, requiring patients to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year. Patients whose insurance plans require them to pay 20% of the cost — a common practice — would shell out $150 a pill.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2015/09/18/company-hikes-price-5000-drug-fights-complication-aids-cancer-daraprim/32563749/

[Hassin Bin Sober]

1. Turning Pharmaceuticals? Who owns them? The Mafia?

"Nice immune system you have there. Be a shame if anything happened to it."

[CatWoman]

4. I'm sorry, this is a really disgusting story

but I can't stop laughing.

LOL!!!!

[Dorian Gray]

12. Me too

the story made me furious, but that post had me chuckling.

[shenmue]

2. Robbing the sick

[WinkyDink]

3. Oddly enough, there is no "cap" in "Capitalism"!

[elleng]

6. Successful capitalism demands REGULATION.

Teddy Roosevelt knew it. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h961.html

[smirkymonkey]

9. +1000

[elleng]

5. Saw it in NYT too:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?

[Ruby the Liberal]

7. Is this a typo?

And if not, why in hades aren't there a multitude of generics out there?

Turing has exclusive rights to market Daraprim (pyrimethamine), on the market since 1953.

[elleng]

10. Happening to generics too.

Read the NYT article whose link I posted.

[Dont call me Shirley]

8. Crimeaceuticals.

[KentuckyWoman]

14. I'm stealing that

It's perfect.

Sad..... but perfect.

[Dont call me Shirley]

16. The more we name them as they are the sooner they will have to change their poison ways.

[Duppers]

19. What Kentuckywoman said.

They are criminal!!

[Oilwellian]

11. How many people die...

because of fuckers like this? That's what I want to know.

[Octafish]

13. More Reverse Robin Hood, please!

I'm giving that stock a buy! Ka-Ching go the asshats and emoticons!

[Skittles]

15. legalized extortion

[think]

17. Most probably know Bernie's got legislation aimed at ending this madness

Sanders, Cummings Introduce Comprehensive Legislation to Lower Soaring Drug Prices

Thursday, September 10, 2015

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) today introduced legislation to address skyrocketing increases in prescription drug prices.

Americans, who already pay the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world, saw prices jump more than 12 percent last year, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That increase was more than double the rise in overall medical costs. Nearly one in five Americans did not fill a prescription last year because they could not afford it.

“Americans should not have to live in fear that they will go bankrupt if they get sick. People should not have to go without the medication they need just because their elected officials aren’t willing to challenge the drug and health care industry lobby,” Sanders said. The pharmaceutical industry spent nearly $230 million on lobbying last year, some $65 million more than any other industry, and employed over 1,400 registered lobbyists.

“In light of 1,000 percent price increases – and more – American families are fed up with trying to afford their medications as they watch drug companies rake in record profits,” Ranking Member Cummings said. “This commonsense and comprehensive bill will reverse this alarming trend, help put people before profits, and make lifesaving drugs more affordable and accessible to millions of Americans families.”

The Prescription Drug Affordability Act of 2015 authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies to bring down costs for Medicare drug benefits. The bill also includes tougher penalties for drug companies that commit fraud and bans the practice of brand name drugmakers paying competitors to keep lower-priced generic substitutes off the market. The bill also lowers barriers to the importation of lower-cost drugs from Canada.

“We should use our buying power to get better deals for the American people. Other countries do it and so should we,” Sanders said.

The Senate bill is cosponsored by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.). The legislation is supported by the Alliance for Retired Americans, Social Security Works, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, National Center for Health Research, Public Citizen, Association of Clinicians for the Underserved, and RxRights, representing the voices of millions of Americans....

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-cummings-introduce-comprehensive-legislation-to-lower-soaring-drug-prices_---

[uppityperson]

18. k&r

[area51]

20. Only in America ...

an alleged 1st world country, where health care isn't a basic human right.

Take a look at my sig below.

[malaise]

21. This is criminal

[CrispyQ]

22. “This is a tremendous increase,"

No, it's a criminal increase.

I am sick to fucking death of living in an everything-for-profit system.

[whatthehey]

23. Who was asking how single payer would save money again?

Exhibt ZZ9 plural Z Alpha. Think they are charging this much in Germany, or the UK, or indeed anywhere where a central national insurance agency is legally allowed to negotiate drug prices? I've worked in the pharma industry and seen those charts. To get differentiation among other countries, US ASP has to be put on a secondary axis.

[Overseas]

24. K&R. The industry should be regulated to prevent this. Shkreli is such a cruel man.

He's a hedge fund manager. He's deciding the fate of thousands with his cruel actions.