Senate panel summons price-hiking CEO of Turing Pharma

A U.S. Senate committee has launched a bipartisan investigation into enormous hikes in drug prices made by Turing Pharmaceuticals, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and two other companies.

Turing Pharmaceuticals, a small USA company that generated outrage over raising the cost of an old anti-infective drug by more than 5,000 per cent, had said it would roll back that increase to make sure it remains affordable, but had yet to do so.

Daraprim is used to treat the parasitic infection toxoplasmosis, transmittable via contaminated food, water, and utensils. Each request focuses on drugs that have seen recent and significant spikes in price.

Republican Senator Susan Collins and ranking Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill asked for Valeant’s co-operation by turning over analysis, documents and historical financial data. Retrophin shares were trading down pre-market at $19.50 from a close of $21.82 on Nasdaq. Along with Valeant, the senators contacted Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, Retrophin Inc. and Rodelis Therapeutics. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sent drugmaker stocks tumbling in September when she said in a tweet that Turing was “price gouging”. Between 2008 through 2014, average prices for the most widely used brand-name drugs jumped 128 percent, according to prescription benefit manager Express Scripts Holding Co.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry’s main lobbying group, also has distanced itself from Turing and Valeant, saying their strategy “is more reflective of a hedge fund than an innovative biopharmaceutical company”. The House Committee on Oversight and Government is also pushing to have Shkreli and Valeant ($VRX) CEO J.

The committee has asked Shkreli to appear for questioning in an initial hearing scheduled for December 9. As per drugmakers and their defenders, the prices of drugs were hiked to aid discovery and development of pioneering new treatments.

At a press conference on Wednesday, the House drug pricing task force posted a picture of Shkreli and a quote from him on how he grieves every time a drug goes generic.

The company has also faced congressional scrutiny over its decision to drastically raise the prices for heart drugs Nitropress and Isuprel after it acquired the rights to sell them. Reasons include increasing research costs, insufficient competition and drug shortages.

Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals fell 6 percent to $91.98 in trading. Drugs are so expensive, in fact, that in 2013, about 20 percent of American adults skipped dosages or opted not to fill prescriptions at all because of the cost, PBS has reported. Philidor is winding down operations after Valeant and other customers severed ties with it.