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Stuart G

(38,414 posts) Fri Oct 23, 2015, 06:07 AM Oct 2015

Competitor Offers $1 Drug After Turing's Controversial $750 Price Hike

Source: Huff Post

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Stepping into the furor over eye-popping price spikes for old generic medicines, a maker of compounded drugs will begin selling $1 doses of Daraprim, whose price recently was jacked up to $750 per pill by Turing Pharmaceuticals.

San Diego-based Imprimis Pharmaceuticals Inc., which mixes approved drug ingredients to fill individual patient prescriptions, said Thursday it will supply capsules containing Daraprim's active ingredients, pyrimethamine and leucovorin, for $99 for a 100-capsule bottle, via its site: www.imprimiscares.com

The 3 1/2-year-old drug compounding firm also plans to start making inexpensive versions of other generic drugs whose prices have skyrocketed, Chief Executive Mark Baum told The Associated Press.

"We are looking at all of these cases where the sole-source generic companies are jacking the price way up," Baum said in an interview. "There'll be many more of these" compounded drugs coming in the near future.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/daraprim-1-dollar-turing_5629a01be4b0443bb5637b35

25 replies

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Highlight:

Competitor Offers $1 Drug After Turing's Controversial $750 Price Hike (Original Post) Stuart G Oct 2015 OP

Not only is the the right thing to do from a humanitarian perspective, it will go a long way towards MADem Oct 2015 #1

Or it's cover to prevent congress christx30 Oct 2015 #13

No. Apparently this lab is planning on compounding the shit out of any drug that gets jacked up MADem Oct 2015 #14

In theory titaniumsalute Oct 2015 #2

Hopefully, that will destrooy the asshole's company.. Stuart G Oct 2015 #3

Agreed! titaniumsalute Oct 2015 #4

As soon as they see their sales drop. Yo_Mama Oct 2015 #19

Sometimes capitalism works nicely. :) bigworld Oct 2015 #5

YES :) Stuart G Oct 2015 #6

YES!! This should happen with every drug Shkreli sells. 7962 Oct 2015 #7

"We are looking at all of these cases where the sole-source generic companies are jacking the price" Iggo Oct 2015 #8

Bernie gets some credit in this mess. He put pressure on the high priced pill CEO Gregorian Oct 2015 #9

Well, no, he doesn't. This is a wholly independent firm capitalizing on the misdeed. Yo_Mama Oct 2015 #20

Markets Work: Martin Shkreli, Daraprim And Turing Pharma Edition mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2015 #10

The thing is, even at the original $13.50 per pill TexasBushwhacker Oct 2015 #15

"Why he thought the market would bear christx30 Oct 2015 #18

Even after he agreed to come down in price Tab Oct 2015 #22

"So Shkreli wasn't just greedy. He was stupid." mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2015 #23

Free market, baby! louis-t Oct 2015 #11

I think I posted in another thread NewJeffCT Oct 2015 #12

one simple thing to say cindyperry2010 Oct 2015 #16

More lonestarnot Oct 2015 #17

Now that's what free market capitalism really is!!!!!!! Imprimis, you are heroes! Dont call me Shirley Oct 2015 #21

Great News ! different equation Oct 2015 #24

I hope they bankrupt that obnoxious, arrogant pretense of a human being. niyad Oct 2015 #25

MADem

(135,425 posts)

1. Not only is the the right thing to do from a humanitarian perspective, it will go a long way towards

Reply to Stuart G (Original post)

Fri Oct 23, 2015, 07:03 AM

Oct 2015

repairing the reputation of compounding labs after the disaster we had in MA a few years ago.

christx30

(6,241 posts)

13. Or it's cover to prevent congress

Reply to MADem (Reply #1)

Sat Oct 24, 2015, 11:50 AM

Oct 2015

from stepping in and heavily regulating the industry.
Yes, this one drug is cheaper. Others are expensive as hell. If congress had stepped in, a huge, bright light would have shone on the industry, exposing their gouging on drugs that save lives. Now, this is a David and Goliath story with a happy ending. Everyone gives a "Capitalism wins" and goes on with their lives, but nothing ever changes.

Sad.

MADem

(135,425 posts)

14. No. Apparently this lab is planning on compounding the shit out of any drug that gets jacked up

Reply to christx30 (Reply #13)

Sat Oct 24, 2015, 04:52 PM

Oct 2015

like that--this is a Free Market "F-U" for all intents and purposes.

That gouger was trying to screw a small minority of people, and the compounding lab is using the FDA regs to stick it to the gouger--see, for individual patients, the compounding labs don't need to jump through those FDA hoops. It's a brillant strategy, so brilliant it's depressing the price of biotech stock.

http://ktar.com/story/712982/drug-compounder-offers-cheap-version-of-costly-turing-drug/

The 3 1/2-year-old drug compounding firm also plans to start making inexpensive versions of other generic drugs whose prices have skyrocketed, Chief Executive Mark Baum told The Associated Press.

“We are looking at all of these cases where the sole-source generic companies are jacking the price way up,” Baum said in an interview. “There’ll be many more of these” compounded drugs coming in the near future.

The high price of prescription medicines in the U.S. — from drugs for cancer and rare diseases that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year down to once-cheap generic drugs now costing many times their old price — has become a hot issue in the 2016 presidential race.

News that Turing, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and other drugmakers have bought rights to old, cheap medicines that are the only treatment for serious diseases and then hiked prices severalfold has angered patients. It’s triggered government investigations, politicians’ proposals to fight “price gouging,” heavy media scrutiny and a big slump in biotech stock prices......Compounded drugs are typically made to fill a doctor’s prescription for an individual patient, sometimes because the mass-produced version is in short supply or completely unavailable and sometimes to allow for customized formulations or dosages. Compounders don’t need Food and Drug Administration approval to do that, unlike drugmakers making huge batches of drugs on complex production lines.

titaniumsalute

(4,742 posts)

2. In theory

Reply to Stuart G (Original post)

Fri Oct 23, 2015, 07:07 AM

Oct 2015

This should make the asshole company who jacked the pills to $750/pill come down immediately in price. If there is an alternative no one will buy that high priced pill over the low priced pill.

Stuart G

(38,414 posts)

3. Hopefully, that will destrooy the asshole's company..

Reply to titaniumsalute (Reply #2)

Fri Oct 23, 2015, 07:11 AM

Oct 2015

titaniumsalute

(4,742 posts)

4. Agreed!

Reply to Stuart G (Reply #3)

Fri Oct 23, 2015, 07:13 AM

Oct 2015

Yo_Mama

(8,303 posts)

19. As soon as they see their sales drop.

Reply to titaniumsalute (Reply #2)

Sun Oct 25, 2015, 03:59 PM

Oct 2015

What's going on is outrageous.

bigworld

(1,807 posts)

5. Sometimes capitalism works nicely. :)

Reply to Stuart G (Original post)

Fri Oct 23, 2015, 07:19 AM

Oct 2015

Stuart G

(38,414 posts)

6. YES :)

Reply to bigworld (Reply #5)

Fri Oct 23, 2015, 07:23 AM

Oct 2015

7962

(11,841 posts)

7. YES!! This should happen with every drug Shkreli sells.

Reply to Stuart G (Original post)

Fri Oct 23, 2015, 07:45 AM

Oct 2015

Let the market forces work; run this sorry bastard out of business.

Iggo

(47,534 posts)

8. "We are looking at all of these cases where the sole-source generic companies are jacking the price"

Reply to Stuart G (Original post)

Fri Oct 23, 2015, 10:44 AM

Oct 2015

Somebody spotted themselves a market niche.

Good on 'em.

Gregorian

(23,867 posts)

9. Bernie gets some credit in this mess. He put pressure on the high priced pill CEO

Reply to Stuart G (Original post)

Fri Oct 23, 2015, 11:26 AM

Oct 2015

The guy even donated three grand just to get to see Bernie, but instead, Sanders just gave the donation to, I forget now, but I think it was an AIDS research clinic.

The guy knew he was being watched.

Yo_Mama

(8,303 posts)

20. Well, no, he doesn't. This is a wholly independent firm capitalizing on the misdeed.

Reply to Gregorian (Reply #9)

Sun Oct 25, 2015, 04:01 PM

Oct 2015

I am sure they do not mind the good publicity, and they will certainly be protecting their business if there are many for whom it is a last resort for affordable meds.

I truly respect Sanders, but he has nothing whatsoever to do with this. He is not a pharmacist.

mahatmakanejeeves

(57,290 posts)

10. Markets Work: Martin Shkreli, Daraprim And Turing Pharma Edition

Reply to Stuart G (Original post)

Fri Oct 23, 2015, 12:41 PM

Oct 2015

Economics & Finance 10/23/2015 @ 2:35AM

Markets Work: Martin Shkreli, Daraprim And Turing Pharma Edition

We have an interesting and important economic lesson for public policy here: markets, they work. More accurately, we don’t have to worry about someone attempting to exploit their possession of a contestable monopoly. We only have to worry, possibly take action, if someone has an uncontestable monopoly. And given that there’s very few of them that we don’t create ourselves for other reasons, this means that monopoly is just one of those things we can keep a wary eye upon but not worry over excessively.

Our example comes from Martin Shkreli. The basic background is that this entrepreneur thinks he’s found a pretty cool business model. There’s a number of pharmaceuticals out there that are well out of patent but still have small and useful markets. FDA regulations (no, we’ll not go into the details of how or why this happens) mean that it’s not as easy as one might think to produce generic versions of these out of patent drugs. So, as a business plan, buy up the rights to the permit-ed (as in, with a permit, not just those allowed, as in permitted) generics and as a result of the difficulty someone else will have in getting into the same market, some pricing power is available. You can then raise the price and start to bank your considerable profits.

This caused outrage when Shkreli announced that this was exactly what he was doing:

“Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company that last month raised the price of the decades-old drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750…

A 5,000% price rise certainly indicates that Turing thinks it has pricing power and thus that it has considerable monopoly power.

However, pricing power, and thus monopoly power (run these either way around at your leisure) depends upon one important point. Whether there are any close substitutes: or, alternatively, whether there are substitute suppliers? These are different manifestations of the same thing, how difficult (or easy) is it going to be for people to get the same thing from someone else, or something else that pretty much gets the job done?

TexasBushwhacker

(20,142 posts)

15. The thing is, even at the original $13.50 per pill

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Reply #10)

Sat Oct 24, 2015, 06:24 PM

Oct 2015

price tag, Daraprim was still very profitable. You can buy generics from Canadian pharmacies for just 45 cents per pill.

So Shkreli wasn't just greedy. He was stupid. Why he thought the market would bear a $750 per pill price tag is beyond me.

He's being sued by his former hedge fund for $65 Million and he's being investigated by the New York AG for possible illegal (not just immoral) trading activity. This amoral asshole is going down in flames. Of course, I'm sure he has millions stashed offshore.

christx30

(6,241 posts)

18. "Why he thought the market would bear

Reply to TexasBushwhacker (Reply #15)

Sun Oct 25, 2015, 03:53 PM

Oct 2015

a $750 per pill price tag is beyond me."

His reasoning is that if the alternative is death, you'll pay whatever he wants you to pay.
And since there was no alternative at the time, we had no choice.

Tab

(11,093 posts)

22. Even after he agreed to come down in price

Reply to TexasBushwhacker (Reply #15)

Mon Oct 26, 2015, 11:56 AM

Oct 2015

he could have gone to $27 (double the price of the old pill), more than doubled the profits, and still was low enough under the radar to not tempt companies like Impiris. But $750 was so ridiculous, it was overreaching, and just begged for someone to take him down.

mahatmakanejeeves

(57,290 posts)

23. "So Shkreli wasn't just greedy. He was stupid."

Reply to TexasBushwhacker (Reply #15)

Mon Oct 26, 2015, 03:57 PM

Oct 2015

Exactly. Right now, he's in the position of a scalper who is holding a handful of tickets -- but the game is halfway through the fourth quarter, or in the sixth inning, or whatever. Had he priced his goods sensibly earlier, he would have made some coin, but now, his holdings are worthless.