Just a few days ago, as I was getting ready to head to my last class, my roommate looked up from her phone and gasped. She proceeded to explain that a drug, used to treat patients with HIV/AIDS, had jumped in price from $13.50 per pill to about $750. Intrigued and disconcerted by this enormous increase, I decided to do some more research.
In August, Turing Pharmaceuticals bought a drug called Daraprim. The 62-year-old medication helps cure patients with toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection, as well as malaria. Toxoplasmosis affects babies born to mothers with the infection as well as people who have weakened immune systems due to HIV or cancer. This drug is a necessity for people with the infection, and has been effectively helping patients for the past 60 years. Just a few years ago, Daraprim was sold for $1 per pill, before eventually increasing to $13.50. But now, at a new price of $750 per pill, patients may go nearly bankrupt trying to afford their medication.
If you're wondering what the purpose is of this 5000 percent increase, you are not alone. Unfortunately, the practice of buying old drugs and racking up the price is nothing new. According to the New York Times article, "Drug Goes From $13.50 A Tablet To $750, Overnight," some price increases in drugs "have resulted from a business strategy of buying old neglected drugs and turning them into high-priced 'specialty drugs.'" Pharmaceutical companies take old drugs and re-brand them as something new, and profiting from medications that could be sold for significantly less money. Companies justify the price increase with the idea that they need money to do research on creating a better drug, even though the current drug works perfectly fine. Clearly, something's not right.
Turing Pharmaceutical's CEO, Martin Shkreli, justifies Daraprim's price jump using this exact argument. Shkreli's rationale is that "the drug is so rarely used that the impact on the health system would be miniscule and that Turing would use the money it earns to develop better treatments for toxoplasmosis, with fewer side effects." Doctors disagree. Because there is no need for improvements on Daraprim, funding is not necessary. Furthermore, Shkreli was recently fired from Retrophin, a company he started in 2011, for doing the same thing. This seems to be a recurring trend, leaving me wondering how this can continue to happen.
Clearly, Turing Pharmaceutical's actions are unethical, and doctors and politicians recognize it. Though after a firestorm of media outrage, Shkreli has agreed to lower the price of the drug slightly, although it will still cost patients who need Daraprim hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to pay for the medication. According to the HIV Medicine Association, the new yearly cost for Daraprim will be between $336,000 and $634,000, depending on the patient's weight.
It shocks me that companies like Turing Pharmaceutical find it acceptable to raise the price so significantly on a medication that people suffering from toxoplasmosis need to survive. It leaves me questioning, is making a profit really more important than saving lives?
