A pharmaceutical company CEO has chose to reverse course and is lowering the price of a drug following outrage over a 5,000 percent hike. After his company acquired an antiparasite medication developed 62 years ago, he increased the price from approximately .50 per pill to 0 overnight. It was developed by Burroughs-Wellcome (now part of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK +0.9%)) to treat malaria.
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For his part, Shkreli defended Turing’s decision to raise the price of Daraprim, telling CBS News correspondent Don Dahler it represented “a reasonable profit”.
Turing’s chief is no stranger to controversy.
By Tuesday evening, Shkreli had changed his tune, telling ABC…
Meanwhile, Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton damned Turing’s price rise as “outrageous” and outlined a broad plan aimed at holding down the cost of prescription drugs. MSMB made an unsolicited $378 million takeover bid for Amag Pharmaceuticals Inc. and said it will fire the drugmaker’s top management if successful.
This increased the price of each pill from $13.50 to $750.
Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli told ABC News that the new price would make Daraprim more accessible. He called a journalist who asked about the drug hike a “moron”, and said the profits from the drug could be used to develop a better treatment.
Despite the claimed intention of helping more patients, Shkreli was slammed by medical groups who protested the sharp price increase. “So for us to try and exist and maintain a profit, I think, is pretty reasonable”.
However, on Tuesday, Mr. Shkreli posted on Twitter that he “will be on national news to set the record straight on misconceptions and announce some adjustments to our plan”. Shkeril’s attitude on Twitter didn’t help his cause, either.
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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”. “We don’t need another drug in this space, and there’s no indication that this guy has any idea how to do drug research and development”.
