Pharmaceutical company buys drug used to treat life-threatening infections; raises price from $13.50 - Polidicks

[QUOTE]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. The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars. “What is it that they are doing differently that has led to this dramatic increase?” said Dr. Judith Aberg, the chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She said the price increase could force hospitals to use “alternative therapies that may not have the same efficacy.” Turing’s price increase is not an isolated example. 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.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html[/url] Here's how the CEO responded to criticism [t]http://i.imgur.com/h7Ssfa8.png[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/PopeduL.png[/t]

Capitalism, ladies and gentlemen. Capitalism and commercialized science.

This kind of breach of trust and ethics is exactly what leads to "alternative medicine" and anti-vaxxers

This is why we need bernie sanders. No other major candidate is talking about this

This is sickening. Is it "liberal" to think people shouldnt be saddled with lifelong debt because they get sick, or is it just fucking moral decency?

what the fuck is this bullshit? shouldnt there be some sort of law against raising the price of a drug thats been used for 60+ years?

Wow, what an asshole.

[QUOTE=spazthemax;48731891]This is sickening. Is it "liberal" to think people shouldnt be saddled with lifelong debt because they get sick, or is it just fucking moral decency?[/QUOTE] Yes. If you go by any major right wing personalities understanding of the world. Remember, all those poor people have to do is pull themselves up by their bootstraps and make their own way in this world!

[QUOTE=VinLAURiA;48731868]Capitalism, ladies and gentlemen. Capitalism and commercialized science.[/QUOTE] Seems more like shitty regulation than capitalism/commercialized science. I mean price increases on the order of 5,500% aren't exactly driven by competition. Seems more like an asshole who found something to exploit and there are poor legal safeguards in place.

[QUOTE=hexpunK;48731935]Yes. If you go by any major right wing personalities understanding of the world. Remember, all those poor people have to do is pull themselves up by their bootstraps and make their own way in this world![/QUOTE] Bearing in mind, of course, that all of the paths that could possibly be "their own way" will be conveniently blocked off under a mountain of bureaucracy and cost of entry that is insurmountable to almost everyone who doesn't have a personal connection to one of the controlling elite. Now spin faster, cog. We can get another 40 years of cheap labor out of your insignificant life.

I wish terrible things to this "person". Things that would make stuff from horror movies seem like a peaceful happy stroll through the park. Bein' edgy again... But seriously, it deeply angers me that "people" like that exist. I don't understand how someone can live with themselves like that, but then again... I have a moral spine unlike this being.

Seems like theirs a lot of profit to be had for another corp to swoop in and make their own version of the drug at a fair price

lmao his callous comment on so called socialist and liberal rage has corporate douchebag written all over it. These people who try and take advantage of bad safeguards and more importantly, the people who need these drugs to survive, are bringing the pharmaceuticals industry further into disrepute. I hope this guy ends up facing actual tangible backlash from this, like forcing a price retraction and apologizing for his insensitive comment.

Something must have happened for them to be able to acquire this and make a profit off it. Or there has simply passed so much time, that it is now public domain, it isn't exactly a company secret how you manufacture the stuff, if it's been around for as long as they say. Though, he does have a point about Twitter and raging people.

[QUOTE=Saxon;48731971]Seems like theirs a lot of profit to be had for another corp to swoop in and make their own version of the drug at a fair price[/QUOTE] They pay off those corporations so they WON'T compete. Why take any risk at all competing when you make money anyways by not doing anything?

[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;48731992]lmao his callous comment on so called socialist and liberal rage has corporate douchebag written all over it. These people who try and take advantage of bad safeguards and more importantly, the people who need these drugs to survive, are bringing the pharmaceuticals industry further into disrepute. I hope this guy ends up facing actual tangible backlash from this, like forcing a price retraction and apologizing for his insensitive comment.[/QUOTE] I wish for the worst, most painful, prolonged demise to happen to this man. He deserves nothing short of utter fucking annihilation, together with anyone involved in his bullshit. Antipsychotics and SSRI blockers are already mad expensive due to fuckheads like these, and for that exact same reason people end up killing themselves in a bout of delusion. Capitalism kills. Medicine should be a state controlled resource, everywhere in the world.

Not defending him, but his last tweet is right. Twitter isn't where you go if you want to make a change.

How could you do this and feel good about yourself. Someone in that company had to see how wrong this is right?

[QUOTE=cody8295;48731877]This is why we need bernie sanders. No other major candidate is talking about this[/QUOTE] Cody on the ball as usual. Bernie couldn't really do anything at all about this. Any push to criminalize this sort of behavior would be met with so much money flowing into the pockets of Congress that the Fed would have to work overtime to print it. Capitalization of healthcare isn't going to change overnight. Nor in a single (or double) presidential term. [QUOTE=Sobotnik;48731957]Seems more like shitty regulation than capitalism/commercialized science. I mean price increases on the order of 5,500% aren't exactly driven by competition. Seems more like an asshole who found something to exploit and there are poor legal safeguards in place.[/QUOTE] Textbook monopolization with inelastic demand. They found that $750 was the optimal price to make a profit on since people are going to buy it to live and people who can't afford it will just die, but who cares? That's where they make the most money. [QUOTE]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.[/QUOTE] This is really just econ 101 stuff. No surprise.

[QUOTE=OvB;48732060]How could you do this and feel good about yourself. Someone in that company had to see how wrong this is right?[/QUOTE] as long as these people care only about their bottom line, good luck with seeing that happen. I remember how pissed Big Pharma were locally when the government told them to fuck off when they tried to make several life saving drugs very expensive. They were going on about how it would prevent R&D investment locally in the pharma industry.

I hate that our society is literally throttled and controlled by absolute psychopaths

[QUOTE=Snowmew;48732065]Textbook monopolization with inelastic demand. They found that $750 was the optimal price to make a profit on since people are going to buy it to live and people who can't afford it will just die, but who cares? That's where they make the most money. This is really just econ 101 stuff. No surprise.[/QUOTE] It is the most logical decision from an economic perspective. But when you only look at numbers, you forget the humanity behind the decision.

[QUOTE=KillerJaguar;48732093]It is the most logical decision from an economic perspective. But when you only look at numbers, you forget the humanity behind the decision.[/QUOTE] Humanity doesn't beget profit. The fact that people [b]die[/b] from being unable to afford their meds is utterly meaningless to the bottom line.

oh before I forget: when Big Pharma were told to fuck off unless they wanted to be slapped with fines and sanctions for violating the government's orders, shortly after they were forced to knuckle under prices for certain important non-essentials not covered by the list, particularly medical equipment and sundries, mysteriously rose over the board by up to 25% of their previous prices.

We never really did get rid of nobility, did we?

wow people need to stop being entitled to staying alive smh :downs:

Dude's a self-proposed capitalist that lives to win. Sounds straight out of fucking Mad Men or Mr. Robot.

Oh hey it's the guy Erik burned. [video=youtube;vx6Ct8kG0iU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx6Ct8kG0iU[/video] What a child.

And to think some people have a problem with nationalized health care. "Capitalism is always the best answer!" Fucking heartless morons. I almost feel sorry for the guy getting so much hate, except every time I remind myself "dude, he raised the price of a life-saving medicine 5555% for no reason other than profit".

[QUOTE=Snowmew;48732065]Cody on the ball as usual. Bernie couldn't really do anything at all about this. Any push to criminalize this sort of behavior would be met with so much money flowing into the pockets of Congress that the Fed would have to work overtime to print it. Capitalization of healthcare isn't going to change overnight. Nor in a single (or double) presidential term. [/QUOTE] Bernie Sanders is attempting to outlaw SuperPAC spending on politicians. If big Pharma can't bride congressmen, they'd be more likely to install various price ceilings for essential medications, which Pyrimethamine (Daraprim) is, as a list of the WHO essential medications list. Shit like this fucking pisses me off to no end. We've got a variety of drugs to treat malaria but Pyrimethamine is the first line drug for Toxoplasmosis patients. It's usually not a problem but in immunocompromised patients (those with HIV) it will pretty much fucking kill you. It's usually used in combination with Sulfadiazine. The pathogen which causes toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasma gondii) can also cause spontaneous miscarriages, birth defects and mental retardation when it infects pregnant women. Thanks to this dickhead we can expect to see a shitload of dead poor HIV/AIDS patients and retarded, deformed poor children. Fucking capitalised healthcare.