After buying the drug later that year, Turing raised the price by more than 50-fold, to $750 a pill.
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Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Feb. 2 sent two supplemental memos to Democratic committee members in preparation for a hearing he requested on skyrocketing prescription drug prices this Thursday.
Three months later, after the acquisition, Shkreli wrote about projections that Daraprim would bring in $375 million a year, after the price of the drug was raised.
“THE ‘most hated man in America” Martin Shkreli bragged in an e-mail that hiking the price of a lifesaving drug would be a “very handsome investment”, according to a memo released by USA politicians Tuesday.
In addition to the fact that the price increases had no justification, they were felt by patients, who were forced to cover some of the cost of the increase in some cases, or were switched to another drug.
The Sheepshead Bay-reared villain emerged from obscurity after he hiked the price of an HIV drug and then seemed to celebrate the ferocious backlash. “Let’s all cross our fingers that the estimates are accurate”, Shkreli wrote to an outside contact in August. It cited correspondence from Valeant marketing executive Jeff Strauss, who reviewed a company response to a customer who complained about price increases.
The price hikes by Valeant and Turing spurred public outrage and prompted congressional investigations.
Valeant said in a statement that it’s offering discounts for the two drugs probed by the committee, and making changes to how it runs its business and growth will be driven by volume instead of price.
Shkreli, who denies the charges, said he was “excited” about working with Brafman.
An associate professor of infectious disease at the University of North Carolina also refused to meet with Turing representatives and urged colleagues at UNC, as well as at Duke, ECU, Wake Forest and other clinical centers across North Carolina “to do likewise, until Turing announces a reasonable and ethical reduction in the price of this important medication-a drug we rely on most to treat toxoplasmosis”. He was subpoenaed to appear before Congress as a witness but has said he will invoke his Fifth Amendment right and not answer questions.
But some documents released by congressional investigators show some patients were hit with copayments as high as $16,800 and others of $6,000, and doctors were protesting.
“Those consultants concluded that, given the significant reimbursements hospitals received under bundled rates for procedures, the prices of both drugs did not reflect their true value to hospitals and patients”, Valeant said “We try to set our prices at the appropriate levels, but we also listen to the market”. An outside consultant e-mailed Turing’s board of directors October 8, suggesting they remove Shkreli as chief executive the next week and drop the price of Daraprim. Democrats on the panel have focused on the companies’ price increases, while Republicans have examined the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process, which GOP members say needs streamlining. Prices more than doubled for 60 drugs and at least quadrupled for 20 since December 2014, according to DRX, a provider of price-comparison software to health plans.
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And like Turing, Valeant adopted a patient-assistance program that was used to “minimize media coverage of the pricing increase”, and assuage payers.
