Nonprofit buys back rights to tuberculosis drug after sharp price hike

Sometimes nonprofits are complicit, and sometimes they are just players on a stage set by the corporations. Hasler said the foundation spent Monday reversing the price hike charged by Rodelis on roughly 30 orders of the 30-capsule blister packs. With such little demand, Hasler said PRF has lost $10 million since it began manufacturing the drug about eight years ago, which made the potential deal with Rodelis more attractive.

Following an outcry, the Indiana-based not-for-profit foundation bought back the rights to Cycloserine.

Rodelis had increased the price of 30 capsules from $500 to $10,800.

The transaction was reversed quickly enough that patients should feel much less of an impact, Hasler said, noting PRF has a history of providing discounts or vouchers for those who need the drug but can’t afford it.

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.

By Andrew Pollack A huge overnight price increase for an important tuberculosis drug has been rescinded after the company that acquired the drug gave it back to its previous owner under pressure, it was announced Monday. Rodelis was putting in place a patient assistance program in which uninsured patients would apply to receive the drug at no cost, it said. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

The Times and Journal both said that the acquisition of the rights to cycloserine was part of a trend of businesses acquiring older drugs and remarketing them as costly “specialty” drugs.

Cycloserine is a medication that is used to treat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, a more serious form of TB that has been haunting people who have been battling the disease for a long time. “This year, a West Hollywood woman sued Anthem Blue Cross for refusing to cover the estimated $99,000 it would cost to treat her hepatitis C with Harvoni”, one of two new drugs for that disease. “At this price it’s a reasonable profit, not excessive at all”.

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.