A 62-year-old drug called Daraprim (pyrimethamine) that is the most common drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection, used to cost $13.50 per pill. Daraprim was recently bought by Turing Pharmaceuticals. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a pill.
Toxoplasmosis is a serious infection in babies who become infected during the mother's pregnancy and for immune-compromised people such as AIDS and chemotherapy patients. Daraprim is also used to treat malaria.
This huge price hike is no longer an uncommon occurrence. A drug used to treat tuberculosis that is resistant to multiple drugs went from $500 for 30 pills to $10,800 after the drug was acquired by Rodelis Therapeutics. The antibiotic doxycycline went from $20 a bottle to $1,849 a bottle.
Although there are cases where a price increase is due to a shortage of a given drug, many of these price hikes are happening to older drugs that were recently acquired by a new manufacturer. The business model being followed is to buy older drugs and turn them into specialty drugs. There have been several large price increases in older drugs that are often the long-established standard treatment for a relatively uncommon disease and which may be available as a generic product. Some have no generic version being made because their market is very small.
The chief executive officer of Turing, Martin Shkreli, explains the price increase for Daraprim by noting that that the drug is so rarely used that the impact of its price on the health system would be minuscule. Turing will use the money it earns to develop better treatments for toxoplasmosis, with fewer side effects, he said.
In some cases, public outcry about price hikes has helped the situation. Rodelis Therapeutics has returned the anti-tuberculosis drug back to its previous maker in the United States, a nonprofit manufacturer affiliated with Purdue University. The drug, cycloserine, will be available at $1,050 for 30 capsules, about double what the previous price was, but about one-tenth what Rodelis was going to charge.
However, a letter jointly sent to Turing by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association called the price increase for Daraprim "unjustifiable for the medically vulnerable patient population" and "unsustainable for the health care system."
Two members of Congress are investigating generic drug price increases including those of two heart drugs, Isuprel and Nitropress, that had their prices raised y 525% and 212%, respectively. The two lawmakers are Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT, and Democratic presidential candidate) and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD).