Aids drug price hike unlikely to affect NZ patients

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate from Vermont, and Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, have asked Shkreli and Turing to reconsider their actions.

However, after the 32-year-old entrepreneur’s company got hold of the manufacturing rights of Daraprim, its price suddenly increased by 5,445 percent.

Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up firm run by a former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli, acquired the drug in August.

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease that is not common in the developed world but is serious when it occurs, hitting people with suppressed immune systems, such as HIV patients who have developed Aids, cancer sufferers on heavy chemotherapy and organ transplant recipients. Now the catalyst that ignited a Twitter outrage this week was in the specifics of the price.

He said that many patients used the drug for far less than a year and that the price was more in line with those of other drugs for rare diseases. Hillary Clinton also caught eye of the over 4,000% increase.

Late Tuesday after the public outcry, Shkreli said he would reduce the price of Daraprim. With the proper budget, he said Turing Pharmaceuticals will be able to develop a more effective drug against toxoplasmosis.

That move was met by accusations of price gouging, and Rodelis agreed to return the drug to Purdue Research Foundation, which oversees the non-profit that manufactures the drug. The vast gap between the price government agencies were allowed to pay for Daraprim compared to cost charged to private insurers underscores the need for increased government oversight and regulation of drug company pricing.

Because the use of Daraprim is commonly associated with the treatment of HIV/AIDS, there is a certain sensationalistic quality to this story. “Turing’s 32-year-old’s CEO’s greed is likely to go down in history as the straw that broke the camel’s back on drug pricing”.

This echoes the typical reasoning big pharmaceutical companies give for their high prices.

Shkreli acknowledged that the cost to produce the drug is low – but he said that doesn’t take into account “the quality control, the regulatory costs, and all of the other things that come with having a drug company”. “It is the worst kind of capitalization on the needs of the sick”.