New price on an old medication

ShaunHorton · Sep 21, 2015

So, the cost for Daraprim, a drug that treats Toxoplasmosis jumped up overnight from $13.50 per pill, to $750 per pill.

Why?

No real reason, except that it was the decision of the last guy to buy the rights to it.

A former hedge fund manager turned pharmaceutical businessman has purchased the rights to a 62-year-old drug used for treating life-threatening parasitic infections and raised the price overnight from $13.50 per tablet to $750.

“This isn’t the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is us trying to stay in business,” Shkreli explained, saying that many patients use the drug for far less than a year and that the new price is similar to other drugs used for rare diseases.

talktidy · Sep 21, 2015

I heard about this. Someone please tell me this is a joke.

Don · Sep 21, 2015

I thought drug patents were only good for twenty years. What's up with that?

ErezMA · Sep 21, 2015

The price should go down once no one buys the pill.

BeronikaKeres · Sep 21, 2015

ErezMA said:
The price should go down once no one buys the pill.

I know right? Like basically everything else does in the world. If they're wanting to stay in business why would they make it impossible for anyone to purchase? I feel sorry for those who will need it, but won't be able to afford 750$ for a pill. Street drugs aren't even that expensive!

buz · Sep 21, 2015

ErezMA said:
The price should go down once no one buys the pill.

Plain capitalism doesn't work so good in situations where your choice is either keep your parasite or pay whatever they ask to get rid of it

ShaunHorton · Sep 21, 2015

I think most of these guys have the idea that because it's a life-saving medicine, people will pay for it no matter what the price.

I sincerely hope this guy somehow contracts the disease this medication is supposed to treat. Or Flesh-eating disease. Something like that.

buz · Sep 21, 2015

Soon his doorstep will be full of boxes of cat poop...

ErezMA · Sep 21, 2015

buzhidao said:
Plain capitalism doesn't work so good in situations where your choice is either keep your parasite or pay whatever they ask to get rid of it

Sulfadiazine is an alternative. There also likely exists generics.

Liosse de Velishaf · Sep 21, 2015

High prices and patents are supposed to protect the finances of companies who funded the R&D on a drug. This company didn't develop the drug, so they have no excuse for this ridiculous price hike. You develop new drugs on spec, and once it's approved, then you get to charge high prices until you make your costs back. This guy's trying to do it backwards. I'm sure we can expect some really fantastic new drugs from his company. Not.

rugcat · Sep 21, 2015

buzhidao said:
Plain capitalism doesn't work so good in situations where your choice is either keep your parasite or pay whatever they ask to get rid of it

Exactly.

When your choice is to pay up or die, you pay up – if you can.

Capitalism in the medical industry is more like price gouging in natural disasters. $25 too much for a banana? Somebody hungrier than you will be glad to pay it.

buz · Sep 21, 2015

ErezMA said:
Sulfadiazine is an alternative.

No, it isn't.

Thelassa · Sep 21, 2015

Oh, but he had to raise the price because they need money to research ways to improve the drug's effectiveness to stay in business. I mean, he could take some of his millions out of his hedge funds and offshore tax havens to invest in his company if that was a true concern. But why do that where there are customers to extort?

Yay, capitalism.

Liosse de Velishaf · Sep 21, 2015

I'm not opposed to a company making a profit. Just as long as it's reasonable given the initial fixed costs and the risks of marketing a product.

BeronikaKeres · Sep 21, 2015

rugcat said:
Exactly.

When your choice is to pay up or die, you pay up – if you can.

Capitalism in the medical industry is more like price gouging in natural disasters. $25 too much for a banana? Somebody hungrier than you will be glad to pay it.

I'd be so dead in this situation. 750$ is more than my rent, and I can barely pay that half the time lol. Either that or I'd let them charge me and then disappear into the wind so they can't find me and force me to pay the medical bill lol

Liosse de Velishaf · Sep 21, 2015

Thelassa said:
Oh, but he had to raise the price because they need money to research ways to improve the drug's effectiveness to stay in business. I mean, he could take some of his millions out of his hedge funds and offshore tax havens to invest in his company if that was a true concern. But why do that where there are customers to extort?

Yay, capitalism.

The article points out he got fired from a previous company for price gouging in order to pay back angry mutual fund investors. So I'm not too optimistic about his intentions or his competence in this case, either.

ErezMA · Sep 21, 2015

buzhidao said:
No, it isn't.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/toxoplasmosis/basics/treatment/con-20025859

Liosse de Velishaf · Sep 21, 2015

ErezMA said:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/toxoplasmosis/basics/treatment/con-20025859

Notice the "with" in the description. It's not used on its own as far as I can tell.

buz · Sep 21, 2015

ErezMA said:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/toxoplasmosis/basics/treatment/con-20025859

From that site:

Sulfadiazine. This antibiotic is used ****with pyrimethamine**** to treat toxoplasmosis.

(emphasis mine)

A drug used in conjunction with another drug DNE an equally effective alternative to the first drug.

From elsewhere:

***Pyrimethamine is the most effective agent and is included in most drug regimens.*** Leucovorin (ie, folinic acid) should be administered concomitantly to prevent bone marrow suppression. ...The most effective available therapeutic combination is pyrimethamine plus sulfadiazine or trisulfapyrimidines (eg, a combination of sulfamerazine, sulfamethazine, and sulfapyrazine). These agents are active against tachyzoites and are synergistic when used in combination.

Find me something that says using a sulfa drug alone is as effective as pyrimethamine or a combination of the two. (Or effective on its own at all.)

c.e.lawson · Sep 21, 2015

BeronikaKeres said:
I'd be so dead in this situation. 750$ is more than my rent, and I can barely pay that half the time lol. Either that or I'd let them charge me and then disappear into the wind so they can't find me and force me to pay the medical bill lol

Seriously, how many of us would be able to pay for this?

"Under the current pricing structure, it is estimated that the annual cost of treatment for toxoplasmosis, for the pyrimethamine component alone, will be $336,000 for patients who weigh less than 60 kg and $634,500 for patients who weigh more than 60 kg," wrote the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association, according to Healio's story. "This cost is unjustifiable for the medically vulnerable patient population in need of this medication and unsustainable for the health care system."

http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/...ug-price-5000-only-moron-would-ask/2015-09-20

This guy sounds like a real jerk.

Edited to Add: No generic substitution available in U.S. per drugs.com

http://www.drugs.com/availability/generic-daraprim.html

BeronikaKeres · Sep 21, 2015

c.e.lawson said:
Seriously, how many of us would be able to pay for this?

Exactly lol (Anyone want to buy a kidney? haha)

buz · Sep 21, 2015

c.e.lawson said:
Seriously, how many of us would be able to pay for this?

I dunno; how many people can pay for a $15,000 appendectomy....

Liosse de Velishaf · Sep 21, 2015

Certainly a lot more who can swing $400,000 a year.

c.e.lawson · Sep 21, 2015

buzhidao said:
I dunno; how many people can pay for a $15,000-dollar appendectomy....

True, but I could get 22 to 44 appendectomies for the cost of one year of Daraprim, depending on my weight. (Which I will NEVER reveal!)

SomethingOrOther · Sep 21, 2015

You guys don't get it. It's like FASHION. Who wants to wear a dinky old $7 t-shirt their five-year-old sister chewed on and ripped scissor holes through? But wait, it's not dinky, it's size zero. It's not old, it's legacy. It's not $7, it's $7000. And it's not chewed on and ripped up by a five-year-old, it's handmade. Then you'll have a whole bunch of rich people shitting out Prada bags with glee.

Similar concept at play here. Toxoplasmosis is gonna be the in-disease this season, just you watch.

New price on an old medication

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