Drugmaker subpoenaed over drug prices, program policies

Martin Shkreli, Turing’s chief executive, has gained bad name because his company purchased the rights to it and then hiked its price 5,000%.

Imprimis Pharmaceuticals will supply capsules containing the two active ingredients in Daraprim, pyrimethamine and leucovorin, for as little as $99 for a bottle of 100 capsules.

The drug is used to treat Aids and cancer while patients are in chemotherapy, but the price went up after Shkerli acquired the patent for it.

“This is not the first time a sole-supply generic drug – especially one that has been approved for use as long as Daraprim – has had its price increased suddenly and to a level that may make it unaffordable”, he said.

A San Diego based pharmaceutical company says it will offer a low-priced alternative to “Daraprim”. For its part, Turing has argued that the price hike was necessary for the company to continue researching the disease the drug is aimed at fighting, toxoplasmosis. Imprimis, which primarily makes compounded drugs to treat cataracts and urological conditions, will work with health insurers and prescription benefit managers in each state to make its new capsules and other compounded generic medicines widely available, Baum said. Since it is compounded, the drug is not subject to the strict regulations of the Food and Drug Administration. “There’ll be many more of these” compounded drugs coming in the near future.

Turing’s Shkreli said, amid the public anger over the Daraprim hike, that the company would lower its price, but in response to an AFP query Friday, it did not say what the new price would be.

Imprimis’ version is the combination of pyrimethamine and another generic drug.

Stepping into the furor over eye-popping price spikes for old generic medicines, a maker of compounded drugs will begin selling $1 doses of Daraprim, whose price recently was jacked up to $750 per pill by Turing Pharmaceuticals.