Michael Graae/For New York Daily News Martin Shkreli recently went back on his promise that he would lower the price of Daraprim, a life-saving drug for AIDS.
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The Swiss company plans to cut the list price for Daraprim by about 50 per cent and make smaller bottles of the drug available starting next year to make it more affordable to stock.
But medical experts said the pills, even at $375 each, would be too costly for most patients. As a result, insurance costs may skyrocket.
It has come into notice that the company is reducing the price for hospitals by up to 50 percent for Daraprim, a drug that treats toxoplasmosis, a rare parasitic infection that mainly strikes pregnant women and HIV patients.
According to HIV Medicine Association chairman Carlos del Rio, Turing’s changes were “just window dressing”. He explained that patients do not need the drug just during their hospitalization; they also need to take it at home, so the discount for hospitals will not help them that much.
“A drug’s list price is not the primary factor in determining patient affordability and access”, Nancy Retzlaff, Turing’s Chief Commercial Office, said in a statement.
Industry analysts said the medicine can be manufactured for only pennies and therefore needs to be reduced in price.
Martin Shkreli, chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals, sparked outrage in September after the company bought the rights to Daraprim and then drastically increasing its cost.
A furore over Turing’s staggering 5000 per cent price hike erupted, triggering multiple government investigations and pledges from politicians to rein in soaring prescription drug prices.
Shkreli previously said the company needed to increase the pill’s price so it could do studies to improve the drug.
Dr. Warren Dinges of the Seattle Infectious Diseases Clinic said he’s treating an HIV patient who got toxoplasmosis in his eye, damaging his vision.
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Yet not everyone has to worry, because another pharma company, called Imprimis, in San Diego, announced that it is planning to make a version of Daraprim and sell it for 66p a pill.
