9 years ago
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Drug CEO Will Lower Price of Daraprim After Hike Sparked Outrage
The pharmaceutical company boss under fire for increasing the price of the drug Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent said Tuesday he will lower the cost of the life-saving medication. Martin Shkreli did not say what the new price would be, but expected a determination to be made over the next few weeks.
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$749 per tablet.
Exactly, I wonder what it's really going to be. I read in Financial Times that he said that the price of $750 was a normal market price and that the previous price was like giving it away for free. So based on that I don't really expect the price to get close to the old price.
I don't even understand how a company can be given exclusive rights to a 62 year old drug. It shows that company rights to drugs are really, underneath it all, just corporate rent-seeking.
Yes, it seems to beat the purpose of having rights, which if I am correctly is to protect companies and stimulate innovation by giving them the room and time to invest in R&D and then make a return on their investment. That's not what this is about anymore. Now the argument is to collect money for future investments, but it can't be right that people can't afford their medication now just so that in the future other people possibly can (assuming the new developed medication is at an affordable price of course).
Being in a medical profession has given me a unique perspective on this issue. In the past several years, I have seen the cost of phenobarbitol, methazolamide, prednisolone acetate and many others increase in cost to the point where people could no longer afford to use them. These are all medications that were pennies a pill or a few dollars a bottle and in many cases absolutely necessary for their treatments . In Europe the cost is exactly where it was before the price increase in the United States. It is unconscionable.
I agree. It's like they think we are all pregnant wallets and can pull money out of thin air.
This man represents for me an example of capitalism at it's extreme worst -- claiming "supply and demand" as a reason for the price hike and then his comment about it "only" cost $1000 to save a life... as if saving life was not the primary reason for the the drug in the first place.
I "heard" his ability to buy the patent for the drug is because he was one of those vampire, hedge fund assholes that trashed the economy with their schemes and scams and made off with piles of money ... and used that money to set up these "little" drug companies, buy a patent, and hike the price. What a doll he is! :| First, kick people out of their homes, and then move on to "killing" people through medicinal price hikes... Wow.. if he is a wanna-be Super Villain, then I would say he is on the right track!
Sadly, I don't expect the price of Daraprim to change much. That guy is a sociopath. Too bad that won't change at all.
Fuck that guy.
This is just a stall tactic. He'll lower the price a bit but won't bother to announce it until it's to the point where the news media won't care enough to make a big deal about it again.