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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEx-hedge funder buys rights to AIDS drug and raises price from $13.50 to $750 per pill
I just thought I'd post this here because surely there's some conservative douche troll that supports this asshole 110%
A former hedge fund manager turned pharmaceutical businessman has purchased the rights to a 62-year-old drug used for treating life-threatening parasitic infections and raised the price overnight from $13.50 per tablet to $750.
WATCH: Ex-hedge funder who hiked AIDS pill cost by 5,500 percent says drug still underpriced
According to the New York Times, Martin Shkreli, 32, the founder and chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, purchased the rights to Daraprim for $55 million on the same day that Turing announced it had raised $90 million from Shkreli and other investors in its first round of financing.
Daraprim is used for treating toxoplasmosis an opportunistic parasitic infection that can cause serious or even life-threatening problems in babies and for people with compromised immune systems like AIDS patients and certain cancer patients that sold for slightly over $1 a tablet several years ago. Prices have increased as the rights to the drug have been passed from one pharmaceutical company to the next, but nothing like the almost 5,500 percent increase since Shkreli acquired it.
Worrying that the cost of treatment could devastate some patients, Dr. Judith Aberg, the chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai asked, What is it that they are doing differently that has led to this dramatic increase?
According to Shkreli, Turing will 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, Shkreli explained, saying that many patients use the drug for far less than a year and that the new price is similar to other drugs used for rare diseases.
Shrkeli also defended his small pharmaceutical company saying, It really doesnt make sense to get any criticism for this.
This is not the first time the fledgling pharmaceutical executive has come under scrutiny.
He started the hedge fund MSMB Capital while in his 20s and was accused of urging the FDA to not approve certain drugs made by companies whose stock he was shorting.
more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/ex-hedge-funder-buys-rights-aids-drug-and-raises-price-from-13-50-to-750-per-pill/
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)A deliberate attempt to drive the drug out of the price range of many AIDS patients and kill them sooner.
woodsprite
(11,854 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)Get used to it folks. One neoliberal in the WH now, another one coming soon.
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)KansDem
(28,498 posts)No one should profit from the illness or injury of others.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)irisblue
(32,829 posts)and why isn't he shut down already?
bastard
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)meat head.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)The Mussolini treatment is good enough for this scumbag.
polly7
(20,582 posts)And he sounds like a real jerk.
"The hedge fund manager responsible for the price increase is named Martin Shkreli. Shkreli has a reputation as some type of wunderkind, having started his own hedge fund company while still in his 20's. Shkreli has already drawn attention for urging the FDA not to approve drugs made by companies whose stocks Shkreli was shorting. In July 20012, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington called for an investigation of Shkreli and others whom it charged were manipulating the prices of drug company stocks through blog posts intended to spread negative and purportedly misleading information about certain drugs. According to CREW, Mr. Shkreli has acknowledged he has no medical expertise whatsoever. His company stands to increase sales in the magnitude of tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars from the price increase, according to the article."
Full article: http://www.alternet.org/economy/hedge-fund-manager-buys-rights-critical-drug-hikes-price-5000?akid=13503.44541.wMRQhR&rd=1&src=newsletter1042766&t=5
RadiationTherapy
(5,818 posts)This is absolutely the value system propagated in the past 50 years of America and to even write an article about it - let alone discuss it or feel outrage - is to be quite naive, in my opinion. After 13 years at a uni library and being milked for every skill set and every shift with no corresponding compensation in the name of budget cuts and crises, I find this to be exactly the same thing. Fraudulently milking staff of skills and hours without paying is directly connected to the sick practice of price gouging and it should be no surprise that it is not only common, but glorified.
This guy is getting his and he is doing it in a fashion that matches America values. Good for him.
Duppers
(28,094 posts)Capitalistic, corporate America at its "best"!
surrealAmerican
(11,340 posts)... why is this possible? The patent should have run out - "exclusive rights" ought not exist.
progressoid
(49,827 posts)Drug patents last 20 IIRC. It appears he secured the exclusive rights to sell Daraprim.
So, anyone can make it, but only he can sell it.
YAY CAPITALISM!!!
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)You can have a patent on a drug. You can have a copyright on a name. But that copyright does not prevent anyone from selling a generic.
progressoid
(49,827 posts)Patents and exclusivity work in a similar fashion but are distinctly different from one another. Patents are granted by the patent and trademark office anywhere along the development lifeline of a drug and can encompass a wide range of claims. Exclusivity is exclusive marketing rights granted by the FDA upon approval of a drug and can run concurrently with a patent or not. Exclusivity is a statutory provision and is granted to an NDA applicant if statutory requirements are met. See 21 C.F.R. 314.108. Exclusivity was designed to promote a balance between new drug innovation and generic drug competition.
http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/ucm079031.htm
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)It sucks, but thanks.
Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)This is not a new drug, so I don't believe it was granted exclusivity.
They did restrict the availability for competitors to obtain samples shortly before raising the prices. In order for another company to be able to produce a generic, it has to establish that the drug is equivalent both chemically and bioavailability - which requires comparison with the approved drug. So it will just cost enormously more to get to the point of getting another generic approved.
McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)Making a generic is a matter of science, but battling multiple appeals about whether there is the same bioavailabiity makes the process too costly for low-profit medications.
Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)if a name, title, or short phrase is novel or distinctive or lends itself to a play on
words, it cannot be protected by copyright. The Copyright Office cannot register
claims to exclusive rights in brief combinations of words such as:
Names of products or services
Names of businesses, organizations, or groups (including the names of
performing groups)
Pseudonyms of individuals (including pen or stage names)
Titles of works
Catchwords, catchphrases, mottoes, slogans, or short advertising expressions
Listings of ingredients, as in recipes, labels, or formulas. When a recipe or
formula is accompanied by an explanation or directions, the text directions
may be copyrightable, but the recipe or formula itself remains uncopyrightable.
http://copyright.gov/circs/circ34.pdf
You are thinking of a trademark - and you are correct as to the impact of having a trademark - it can't prevent a competitor from selling the same product.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)than know you can't.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)I guess that's one reason why I'm an engineer, not a lawyer.
Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)Physics & applied math (undergrad and grad) + lawyer.
randys1
(16,286 posts)and i Have been told over and over that I am a lunatic.
You mean capitalism for the most part can be abused and can hurt people?
Never saw that coming, did I.
Duppers
(28,094 posts)I'm also puzzled about that.
Sgent
(5,857 posts)the drug only sold 13m a year prior to the price increase. There wasn't any profit for a second manufacturer to compete in the market. He bought the only company that actually produces the drug in question.
Given current prices, a second manufacturer will come in, but there are two issues:
1) Time -- it will take 1-2 years for a second manufacturer to start producing it, by that time the hedge fund asshole has already made hundreds of millions in profits -- not bad for a 55m investment.
2) Access -- along with the price increase this asshole changed the distribution system (you won't find it in your neighborhood pharmacy, it has to be sourced directly from the company on a per patient basis). This makes it difficult for a new manufacturer to acquire enough of the existing drug to prove bio-equivalence, which is needed for a generic drug to be produced.
lpbk2713
(42,696 posts)Hedge fund manager to big pharma. Now there's a logical career move.
pipoman
(16,038 posts)And a lengthy application period for price increases...
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)This asshole demolishes all the tropes used to deify the rich.
This guy is rich because he's an asshole. It only takes one example to prove the premise.
nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)Time.com | Steven Brill | April 4, 2013
http://time.com/198/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/
...Put simply, with Obamacare weve changed the rules related to who pays for what, but we havent done much to change the prices we pay.
When you follow the money, you see the choices weve made, knowingly or unknowingly.
Over the past few decades, weve enriched the labs, drug companies, medical device makers, hospital administrators and purveyors of CT scans, MRIs, canes and wheelchairs. Meanwhile, weve squeezed the doctors who dont own their own clinics, dont work as drug or device consultants or dont otherwise game a system that is so gameable. And of course, weve squeezed everyone outside the system who gets stuck with the bills.
Weve created a secure, prosperous island in an economy that is suffering under the weight of the riches those on the island extract.
And weve allowed those on the island and their lobbyists and allies to control the debate, diverting us from what Gerard Anderson, a health care economist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says is the obvious and only issue: All the prices are too damn high.
http://time.com/198/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/
^ a must read- we will never fix the problem if we don't understand exactly what it is
Response to tenderfoot (Original post)
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Response to Post removed (Reply #20)
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Takket
(21,425 posts)Doesn't the FDA or some agency oversee these prices to prevent gouging? or just look out of the general wellbeing of society? if you allow people to just charge anything they want for drugs people will DIE. Literally DIE because they can't afford it.
And the "free market" argument holds no water. this is not like someone buying Oreck and jacking up the price of vacuum cleaners. the free market adjusts for that by having people just buy other vacuums until Oreck decides to lower prices or go out of business. But when you talk about doctors prescribing something a patient needs, its not like they can just shop for a competitors drug.
The government needs to put a stop to this now. we already pay 10x more than other countries for our medical care and when all the copy cats steal this asshole's idea before you know it we will all be paying 5000x!!!!!!!!!!!
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)but with healthcare as a big exception. "Competition" in health care means that whoever provides the least care at the highest price wins, which is unconscionable, as is what this guy is doing. Only a true sociopath would be able to do this and be able to live with himself.
LiberalArkie
(15,686 posts)even before the price increase.
https://www.pharmacyrxworld.com/buy-Daraprim.html
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)Because of our freedoms or some reason
BuelahWitch
(9,083 posts)TDale313
(7,820 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I can't even say what I really like to see happen to this greedy, disgusting pig.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)but it's worth the click. It will piss you off.
The asshole speaks:
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/21/drug-goes-from-1350-a-tablet-to-750-overnight.html
Jack Rabbit
(45,984 posts). . . would land me in big trouble with Agent Mike.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)This is no different morally than kidnap and ransom.
Monster
BuelahWitch
(9,083 posts)Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)I hope he's haunted.
What a jerk.
I hope he feels uncomfortable EVERYWHERE.
Response to tenderfoot (Original post)
Eric J in MN This message was self-deleted by its author.
Capt.Rocky300
(1,005 posts)leveymg
(36,418 posts)And it costs just pennies.
Lars39
(26,093 posts)polly7
(20,582 posts)By Scott Eric Kaufman / Salon September 21, 2015
http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/twitter-shreds-drug-profiteer-price-rise-scandal-goes-national?akid=13505.44541.4xMtp6&rd=1&src=newsletter1042811&t=14
Lots of righteous tweets ......... this guy is going to feel the wrath of the whole world. Sociopaths don't let this bother them though, he'll be fine.
Comments:
vladilyich an hour ago
The company also made news last night on the CBC's "The National" in Canada. They did something almost as bad with another drug and raised the price 2000% over night. This was for a drug that's about the only thing to treat drug resistant TB and raised the price from $10 a dose to over $250. The thing that's different is that this drug is used for long-term treatment so a patient will end up paying close to a million dollars for the full course.
llozano 33 minutes ago
Get used to this happening on a large scale if the TPP goes into effect. One of the biggest beneficiaries of the Trade deal will be pharmaceutical companies. They will be raking in billions of patents for medications here and abroad. It is a deal made in heaven for them.
Yes:
TPP Trade Deal Will Be Devastating for Access to Affordable Medicines
By Doctors Without borders
Source: Doctors Without Borders
February 2, 2015
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016113174
Ten Reasons Why the TPP Must Be Defeated
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/12/31/ten-reasons-why-tpp-must-be-defeated
eppur_se_muova
(36,227 posts)sometimes even a biased expectation turns out to be true.
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)he might fall victim to a fatal "accident" sometime soon.
One would devoutly hope so, anyway.
Turbineguy
(37,212 posts)in the "Who's a Bigger Asshole Contest". I expect he will be unseated soon. I'm beginning to miss Hitler again.
Rosco T.
(6,496 posts)seize the assets of the asshole and make sell it for what it costs, $1.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)be recognized again. LOL
valerief
(53,235 posts)RR2
(87 posts)Great plan, raise the price so insanely high that when you finally agree to lower it back down "to a more affordable price". That price is now only going to be a mere 5 to 10 times higher than it was originally.
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)I hope he gets whatever he wants in life.
Along with all that goes with that.