Nonprofit Regains Rights to TB Drug After Huge Price Spike

The contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton, has condemned the trending practice of acquiring old neglected drugs and selling them as “specialised drugs” at skyrocketing prices.

A new report found Americans overpay for cancer drugs to the tune of 600 times more than it costs companies to develop and manufacture them, according to an analysis conducted by a pharmacologist from Britain’s University of Liverpool.

The price of the drug, originally $500 for 30 capsules, would have been $10,800 under the new arrangement with Rodelis.

Turing Pharmaceuticals suddenly found itself one of America’s most hated companies after it raised the price of an important drug by more than 4,000 percent.

Turing Pharmaceuticals refuses to budge on the price of Daraprim, a 62-year-old drug used to treat parasitic infection which suddenly jumped from $18 to $750 per tablet.

“We discovered literally on Thursday the strategy that had been undertaken” by Rodelis, said Dan Hasler, the president of the Purdue Research Foundation, which has oversight of the manufacturing operation.

“The supply issues have been very significant for us”, said Armstrong.

By Saturday, he said, Rodelis had agreed to give back the drug.

Turing Pharmaceuticals chief Martin Shkreli, however, has refused to back down from the huge increase in the price of toxoplasmosis drug Daraprim despite heavy criticism.

And that same day, Bernie Sanders reportedly sent Turing a letter demanding information on the price increase.

Cycloserine first went on sale in 1955, and was produced by Eli Lilly and Co. until about 2000, when it transferred manufacturing rights and skills to generic drug companies in India, China, South Africa and other countries as a philanthropic move. Between the small patient market and regulatory costs, The Chao Center, the only FDA-approved manufacturer of cycloserine, has lost roughly $10 million since it obtained the rights in 2007. So the Chao Center was interested when it was approached by Rodelis.