Martin Shkreli Abandons Promise to Lower HIV Drug Price He Gouged
The disreputable pharmaceutical boss has reneged on an agreement to lower the price of a medication he raised from $13.50 to $750 per pill.
Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli. (CBS)
Disreputable pharmaceutical boss Martin Shkreli has reneged on his promise to lower the price of an HIV medication he raised from $13.50 to $750 per pill.
The Guardian reports:
Shkreli’s company Turing Pharmaceuticals announced on Wednesday that it would provide volume discounts of its drug Daraprim to hospitals, but it appears that the company’s $750-a-pill price tag still stands.
Turing and Shkreli attracted a firestorm of criticism in September after it was revealed the company had raised the price of Daraprim, a 62-year-old treatment for parasitic infections, to $750 a pill from $13.50 after acquiring it. The medicine once sold for $1 a pill.
Shkreli pledged to lower the price of the drug in an interview shortly after being roundly pilloried by people including Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. But in a press release Nancy Retzlaff, Turing’s chief commercial officer, said: “Drug pricing is one of the most complex parts of the healthcare industry. A drug’s list price is not the primary factor in determining patient affordability and access. A reduction in Daraprim’s list price would not translate into a benefit for patients.”
Instead Turing will offer reductions of up to 50% to hospitals, introduce new, smaller bottles of 30 tablets and lower costs and offer free sample starter packages starting in early 2016.
Read more here.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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