Huge price hikes for drugs.

[Póg mo 1,749]

This is disgusting.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?_r=0&referrer=

Doxycycline, an antibiotic, went from $20 a bottle in October 2013 to $1,849 by April 2014, according to the two lawmakers.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association sent a joint letter to Turing earlier this month calling the price increase for Daraprim unjustifiable for the medically vulnerable patient population and unsustainable for the health care system. An organization representing the directors of state AIDS programs has also been looking into the price increase, according to doctors and patient advocates.

Daraprim, known generically as pyrimethamine, is used mainly to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasite infection that can cause serious or even life-threatening problems for babies born to women who become infected during pregnancy, and also for people with compromised immune systems, like AIDS patients and certain cancer patients.

Martin Shkreli, the founder and chief executive of Turing, said that the drug is so rarely used that the impact on the health system would be minuscule and that Turing would use the money it earns to develop better treatments for toxoplasmosis, with fewer side effects.

This isnt the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is us trying to stay in business, Mr. Shkreli said. He said that many patients use the drug for far less than a year and that the price was now more in line with those of other drugs for rare diseases.

This is still one of the smallest pharmaceutical products in the world, he said. It really doesnt make sense to get any criticism for this.

This is not the first time the 32-year-old Mr. Shkreli, who has a reputation for both brilliance and brashness, has been the center of controversy. He started MSMB Capital, a hedge fund company, in his 20s and drew attention for urging the Food and Drug Administration not to approve certain drugs made by companies whose stock he was shorting.

In 2011, Mr. Shkreli started Retrophin, which also acquired old neglected drugs and sharply raised their prices. Retrophins board fired Mr. Shkreli a year ago. Last month, it filed a complaint in Federal District Court in Manhattan, accusing him of using Retrophin as a personal piggy bank to pay back angry investors in his hedge fund.

Mr. Shkreli has denied the accusations. He has filed for arbitration against his old company, which he says owes him at least $25 million in severance. They are sort of concocting this wild and crazy and unlikely story to swindle me out of the money, he said.

Daraprim, which is also used to treat malaria, was approved by the F.D.A. in 1953 and has long been made by GlaxoSmithKline. Glaxo sold United States marketing rights to CorePharma in 2010. Last year, Impax Laboratories agreed to buy Core and affiliated companies for $700 million. In August, Impax sold Daraprim to Turing for $55 million, a deal announced the same day Turing said it had raised $90 million from Mr. Shkreli and other investors in its first round of financing.

Daraprim cost only about $1 a tablet several years ago, but the drugs price rose sharply after CorePharma acquired it. According to IMS Health, which tracks prescriptions, sales of the drug jumped to $6.3 million in 2011 from $667,000 in 2010, even as prescriptions held steady at about 12,700. In 2014, after further price increases, sales were $9.9 million, as the number of prescriptions shrank to 8,821. The figures do not include inpatient use in hospitals.

Turings price increase could bring sales to tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars a year if use remains constant. Medicaid and certain hospitals will be able to get the drug inexpensively under federal rules for discounts and rebates. But private insurers, Medicare and hospitalized patients would have to pay an amount closer to the list price.

Some doctors questioned Turings claim that there was a need for better drugs, saying the side effects, while potentially serious, could be managed.

I certainly dont think this is one of those diseases where we have been clamoring for better therapies, said Dr. Wendy Armstrong, professor of infectious diseases at Emory University in Atlanta.

With the price now high, other companies could conceivably make generic copies, since patents have long expired. One factor that could discourage that option is that Daraprims distribution is now tightly controlled, making it harder for generic companies to get the samples they need for the required testing.

The switch from drugstores to controlled distribution was made in June by Impax, not by Turing. Still, controlled distribution was a strategy Mr. Shkreli talked about at his previous company as a way to thwart generics.

Some hospitals say they now have trouble getting the drug. Weve not had access to the drug for a few months, said Dr. Armstrong, who also works at Grady Memorial Hospital, a huge public treatment center in Atlanta that serves many low-income patients.

But Dr. Rima McLeod, medical director of the toxoplasmosis center at the University of Chicago, said that Turing had been good about delivering drugs quickly to patients, sometimes without charge.

They have jumped every time Ive called, she said. The situation, she added, seems workable despite the price increase.

Daraprim is the standard first treatment for toxoplasmosis, in combination with an antibiotic called sulfadiazine. There are alternative treatments, but there is less data supporting their efficacy.

Dr. Aberg of Mount Sinai said some hospitals will now find Daraprim too expensive to keep in stock, possibly resulting in treatment delays. She said that Mount Sinai was continuing to use the drug, but each use now required a special review.

This seems to be all profit-driven for somebody, Dr. Aberg said, and I just think its a very dangerous process.

[Expat1 971]

Someday hedge fund managers, futures traders, and day traders will hopefully be taxed out of existence requiring them to seek real employment adding real value (or not) to something of measurable substance

[decocker 7,198]

kids today, what chumps.

[Póg mo 1,749]

Someday hedge fund managers, futures traders, and day traders will hopefully be taxed out of existence requiring them to seek real employment adding real value (or not) to something of measurable substance

You are so wrong to blame hedge fund managers, the real blame as always lies with socialists for supporting patents and trademarks. Interestingly enough the one country where patents are likely to be ignored is a communist country. Weird isn't it?

[Jacque67 7,328]

kids today, what chumps.

Hawwwt.

[decocker 7,198]

Hawwwt.

barf. no way. i mean, not even for the money. and i've got caba blood.

[Jacque67 7,328]

barf. no way. i mean, not even for the money. and i've got caba blood.

C'mon. He could be easily played;)

[decocker 7,198]

C'mon. He could be easily played;)

pffft. they're all easily played.

[Expat1 971]

You are so wrong to blame hedge fund managers, the real blame as always lies with socialists for supporting patents and trademarks. Interestingly enough the one country where patents are likely to be ignored is a communist country. Weird isn't it?

Not this time

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/business/big-price-increase-for-an-old-drug-will-be-rolled-back-turing-chief-says.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

Some cool stuff about this winner -

This is not the first time that Mr. Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager with a reputation for outspokenness, has been at the center of a controversy.

While in his 20s, he drew negative attention for urging the Food and Drug Administration not to approve drugs made by companies whose stock he was selling short.

He was among a group of investors ordered by a New York judge to pay $2.3 million to Lehman Brothers to cover a losing bet on the markets in 2007.

Two former employees sued him for not paying their wages, while another former employee accused Mr. Shkreli of taking over his personal email and Facebook accounts and harassing his family through social media.

The board of his first pharmaceutical company accused him of using the company as his personal piggy bank to pay back angry investors in his hedge fund

This activity doesn't build anything, add anything to the economy, or add value. Thus, in my view, it should be taxed out of existence.

Edited September 24, 2015 by Expat1

[Neonred 3,454]

Although technically not legal, but also rarely prevented, one can order drugs such as generic daraprim from outside the US and pay pennies per tablet.

[X Factor 1,110]

Someday hedge fund managers, futures traders, and day traders will hopefully be taxed out of existence requiring them to seek real employment adding real value (or not) to something of measurable substance

I use the vix & spx futures to hedge my trading accounts. What's wrong with that?

[Rob L 3,811]

Not this time

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/business/big-price-increase-for-an-old-drug-will-be-rolled-back-turing-chief-says.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

Some cool stuff about this winner -

This is not the first time that Mr. Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager with a reputation for outspokenness, has been at the center of a controversy.

While in his 20s, he drew negative attention for urging the Food and Drug Administration not to approve drugs made by companies whose stock he was selling short.

He was among a group of investors ordered by a New York judge to pay $2.3 million to Lehman Brothers to cover a losing bet on the markets in 2007.

Two former employees sued him for not paying their wages, while another former employee accused Mr. Shkreli of taking over his personal email and Facebook accounts and harassing his family through social media.

The board of his first pharmaceutical company accused him of using the company as his personal piggy bank to pay back angry investors in his hedge fund

This activity doesn't build anything, add anything to the economy, or add value. Thus, in my view, it should be taxed out of existence.

[Rob L 3,811]

I use the vix & spx futures to hedge my trading accounts. What's wrong with that

There are hedgers : you

and speculators : crazy sobs

[Rob L 3,811]

[Expat1 971]

I use the vix & spx futures to hedge my trading accounts. What's wrong with that?

Since there is a difference between protecting capital and actively interfering with the market to make money on the way down I don't think the above question warrants a detailed response