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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCompany hikes price 5,000% for drug that fights complication of AIDS, cancer
A drug treating a common parasite that attacks people with weakened immune systems increased in cost 5,000% to $750 per pill.
At a time of heightened attention to the rising cost of prescription drugs, doctors who treat patients with AIDS and cancer are denouncing the new cost to treat a condition that can be life-threatening.
Turing Pharmaceuticals of New York raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill last month, shortly after purchasing the rights to the drug from Impax Laboratories. Turing has exclusive rights to market Daraprim (pyrimethamine), on the market since 1953.
Daraprim fights toxoplasmosis, the second most common food-borne disease, which can easily infect people whose immune systems have been weakened by AIDS, chemotherapy or even pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
This is a tremendous increase," said Judith Aberg, a spokesperson for the HIV Medicine Association. Even patients with insurance could have trouble affording the medication, she said. That's because insurance companies often put high-price drugs in the "specialty" category, requiring patients to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year. Patients whose insurance plans require them to pay 20% of the cost a common practice would shell out $150 a pill.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2015/09/18/company-hikes-price-5000-drug-fights-complication-aids-cancer-daraprim/32563749/
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,330 posts)"Nice immune system you have there. Be a shame if anything happened to it."
CatWoman
(79,302 posts)but I can't stop laughing.
LOL!!!!
Dorian Gray
(13,496 posts)the story made me furious, but that post had me chuckling.
shenmue
(38,506 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)elleng
(130,974 posts)Teddy Roosevelt knew it. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h961.html
elleng
(130,974 posts)Ruby the Liberal
(26,219 posts)And if not, why in hades aren't there a multitude of generics out there?
elleng
(130,974 posts)Read the NYT article whose link I posted.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)KentuckyWoman
(6,688 posts)It's perfect.
Sad..... but perfect.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Duppers
(28,125 posts)They are criminal!!
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)because of fuckers like this? That's what I want to know.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)I'm giving that stock a buy! Ka-Ching go the asshats and emoticons!
Skittles
(153,169 posts)think
(11,641 posts)Thursday, September 10, 2015
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) today introduced legislation to address skyrocketing increases in prescription drug prices.
Americans, who already pay the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world, saw prices jump more than 12 percent last year, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That increase was more than double the rise in overall medical costs. Nearly one in five Americans did not fill a prescription last year because they could not afford it.
Americans should not have to live in fear that they will go bankrupt if they get sick. People should not have to go without the medication they need just because their elected officials arent willing to challenge the drug and health care industry lobby, Sanders said. The pharmaceutical industry spent nearly $230 million on lobbying last year, some $65 million more than any other industry, and employed over 1,400 registered lobbyists.
In light of 1,000 percent price increases and more American families are fed up with trying to afford their medications as they watch drug companies rake in record profits, Ranking Member Cummings said. This commonsense and comprehensive bill will reverse this alarming trend, help put people before profits, and make lifesaving drugs more affordable and accessible to millions of Americans families.
The Prescription Drug Affordability Act of 2015 authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies to bring down costs for Medicare drug benefits. The bill also includes tougher penalties for drug companies that commit fraud and bans the practice of brand name drugmakers paying competitors to keep lower-priced generic substitutes off the market. The bill also lowers barriers to the importation of lower-cost drugs from Canada.
We should use our buying power to get better deals for the American people. Other countries do it and so should we, Sanders said.
The Senate bill is cosponsored by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.). The legislation is supported by the Alliance for Retired Americans, Social Security Works, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, National Center for Health Research, Public Citizen, Association of Clinicians for the Underserved, and RxRights, representing the voices of millions of Americans....
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-cummings-introduce-comprehensive-legislation-to-lower-soaring-drug-prices_---
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)area51
(11,911 posts)an alleged 1st world country, where health care isn't a basic human right.
Take a look at my sig below.
malaise
(269,054 posts)CrispyQ
(36,478 posts)No, it's a criminal increase.
I am sick to fucking death of living in an everything-for-profit system.
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)Exhibt ZZ9 plural Z Alpha. Think they are charging this much in Germany, or the UK, or indeed anywhere where a central national insurance agency is legally allowed to negotiate drug prices? I've worked in the pharma industry and seen those charts. To get differentiation among other countries, US ASP has to be put on a secondary axis.
Overseas
(12,121 posts)He's a hedge fund manager. He's deciding the fate of thousands with his cruel actions.