Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

[Peata]

Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

By ANDREW POLLACKSEPT. 20, 2015


excerpts...

Specialists in infectious disease are protesting a gigantic overnight increase in the price of a 62-year-old drug that is the standard of care for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection.....

While most of the attention on pharmaceutical prices has been on new drugs for diseases like cancer, hepatitis C and high cholesterol, there is also growing concern about huge price increases on older drugs, some of them generic, that have long been mainstays of treatment....

Although some price increases have been caused by shortages, others have resulted from a business strategy of buying old neglected drugs and turning them into high-priced “specialty drugs.”.....

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

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.....Daraprim cost only about $1 a tablet several years ago, but the drug’s price rose sharply after CorePharma acquired it. .....

“This seems to be all profit-driven for somebody,” Dr. Aberg said, “and I just think it’s a very dangerous process.”

 

[charlie]

Karl Denninger blogged about this today:

So what justifies this sort of change? Nothing, really, other than a hedgie sort of dude buying up these drugs and then jacking the price, basically betting that the drug is in limited-enough use that nobody else will produce another generic equivalent and by controlling distribution they also make it harder to produce a competing generic since you must establish equivalence to get approval for it.

Rest of article at link:
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=230701

 

[SQu]

People should know what they're really dealing with. Outrageous opportunism like this maybe helps reveal the true industry motives. Maybe.

 

[haidut]

post 100663 Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

By ANDREW POLLACKSEPT. 20, 2015


excerpts...

Specialists in infectious disease are protesting a gigantic overnight increase in the price of a 62-year-old drug that is the standard of care for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection.....

While most of the attention on pharmaceutical prices has been on new drugs for diseases like cancer, hepatitis C and high cholesterol, there is also growing concern about huge price increases on older drugs, some of them generic, that have long been mainstays of treatment....

Although some price increases have been caused by shortages, others have resulted from a business strategy of buying old neglected drugs and turning them into high-priced “specialty drugs.”.....

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

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.....Daraprim cost only about $1 a tablet several years ago, but the drug’s price rose sharply after CorePharma acquired it. .....

“This seems to be all profit-driven for somebody,” Dr. Aberg said, “and I just think it’s a very dangerous process.”

I think the main reason for price increase of daraprim is due to this recent discovery:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrimetha ... _of_action
"...Pyrimethamine interferes with tetrahydrofolic acid synthesis from folic acid by inhibiting the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR).[8] Tetrahydrofolic acid is needed for DNA and RNA synthesis in many species, including protozoa.[8] It has also been found to reduce the expression of SOD1, a key protein involved in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.[9][10]"

ALS got a LOT of press in 2014 and funding for its "study" has increase tremendously. It could be a pre-emptive approach of getting control of a drug that may soon become approved for one of the most deadly neurological conditions.

 

[Peata]

I've read that some older generic drugs are getting dusted off and resold for hundreds of dollars more as they find a new use for them, to market them. I hope they don't look too closely at, say, cyproheptadine and do the same. I can currently get 3 months of it for $5. Imagine if that went up to $1000.