Hedge funder buys rights to AIDS treatment pill and raises price from $13.50 to $750

[Locutus]

A hedge fund trader is at the centre of mounting controversy after the pharmaceutical company he bought raised overnight the cost of a life-saving treatment for people with Aids and weakened immune systems from $13.50 per pill to $750.

The 5,000 per cent increase was enacted last month for Daraprim, known generically as pyrimethamine, by Turing Pharmaceuticals of New York, a start-up firm, shortly after it bought the rights to the drug. The firm is headed by Martin Shkreli.

Daraprim fights toxoplasmosis, the second most common food-borne disease, which can easily infect people whose immune systems have been weakened by AIDS, chemotherapy or pregnancy, according to the Centres for Disease Control. About 60 million people in the United States may carry the toxoplasma parasite.


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Hedge funder Martin Shkreli buys rights to drug used by HIV patients and raises price from $13.50 to $750 per pill - Americas - World - The Independent

 

[B00Mer]

Now if anyone deserves a bullet, this greedy bastard does.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Now if anyone deserves a bullet, this greedy bastard does.

Don't like the free market, Boomer?

 

[mentalfloss]

I hope conbots remember this when they argue for privatization of this industry.

 

[B00Mer]

Don't like the free market, Boomer?

I love the free market Thomas, just don't like outright greed at the expense of others lives.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

I hope conbots remember this when they argue for privatization of this industry.

Turns out the solution to free market problems is. . . the free market.

Daraprim isn't patented. Anybody who wants to can cook up a batch and sell it at 1/10th the price Turing is charging.

 

[B00Mer]

Turns out the solution to free market problems is. . . the free market.

Daraprim isn't patented. Anybody who wants to can cook up a batch and sell it at 1/10th the price Turing is charging.

Maybe I didn't hear it correct on TV but they said he bought the "rights" which generally means patent.

You sure it's not patent?

If not I agree with your above post, the cure to his greed is competition or free market.

 

[SLM]

Maybe I didn't hear it correct on TV but they said he bought the "rights" which generally means patent.

You sure it's not patent?

I may be wrong about this but I always understood that when it comes to pharmaceuticals, exclusive patent rights are limited to a specific time frame after which anyone can make a knock off of the drug. This is why there are generic brands of most major drugs..

 

[petros]

Shhhh. You'll unruffle senseless feather ruffling.

 

[SLM]

Shhhh. You'll unruffle senseless ruffling.

My bad. Carry on carrying on then.

 

[mentalfloss]

Turns out the solution to free market problems is. . . the free market.

Daraprim isn't patented. Anybody who wants to can cook up a batch and sell it at 1/10th the price Turing is charging.

“Prices are rising when basic rules of markets say they shouldn’t. Each step of progress costs more than the last; prices rise even when competitors appear.”

http://fortune.com/2015/09/17/rising-drug-prices/

 

[darkbeaver]

Are prices rising or value of currencys falling? Or are numbers changeing and nothing else?

 

[mentalfloss]

Am I more correct or less wrong than you?

 

[petros]

You already blew it. Reality set in while you were walking from the bus stop.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Maybe I didn't hear it correct on TV but they said he bought the "rights" which generally means patent.

You sure it's not patent?

If not I agree with your above post, the cure to his greed is competition or free market.

Daraprim is not patented, I checked.

Turing bought the distribution rights for Daraprim produced by Glaxo. That has no effect at all on the ability of other companies to produce and distribute it as they see fit.

I may be wrong about this but I always understood that when it comes to pharmaceuticals, exclusive patent rights are limited to a specific time frame after which anyone can make a knock off of the drug. This is why there are generic brands of most major drugs..

You're correct. That also applies to all patents. The term of the patent is 17 or 20 years, depending on circumstances, in the U.S. and Europe. Daraprim has been around since 1953. It is out of patent.

By the way, the drug is called pyrimethamine. Daraprim is a brand name.

Generic pyrimethamine is being made in India. It hasn't been approved for the U.S.

So what is the stumbling block to cheap pyrimethamine? The government.

The same government folks want to interfere in the market here.

 

[petros]

It was the generic that went up 5000%....

Price of generic drug Daraprim increases 5,000 percent overnight - CBS News

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

It was the generic that went up 5000%....

Price of generic drug Daraprim increases 5,000 percent overnight - CBS News

CBS is equal to CBC in their understanding of legal and technical terms.

I'll explain it once. Then you'll get all pissy and snarky and I'll ignore you, OK?

The name of the drug is pyrimethamine. Daraprim is a brand name. It is manufactured by Glaxo, and Turing has the exclusive distribution rights for the U.S. That means that Glaxo will sell Daraprim only to Turing for U.S. distribution. There are no other manufacturers of pyrimethamine in the U.S.

There are manufacturers of pyrimethamine in other countries, including India. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved foreign-manufactured pyrimethamine for sale in the U.S.

CBS is misusing the term "generic." It appears from the article you posted that they are using it to mean "out of patent." Which pyrimethamine is. The Daraprim brand of pyrimethamine's distribution in the U.S. is limited by Glaxo's contract with Turing. And only by that contract.

The only other limitations on the ability of others to manufacture and/or sell pyrimethamine in the U.S. are government regulations.

 

[SLM]

Price of generic drug Daraprim increases 5,000 percent overnight - CBS News

So it looks like the hedge fund dude is just looking to make a fast buck.

 

[Locutus]

The New York Times said Glaxo sold United States marketing rights to CorePharma in 2010. Last year, Impax Laboratories agreed to buy Core and affiliated companies for $700m. In August, Impax sold Daraprim to Turing for $55m, a deal announced the same day Turing said it had raised $90m from Mr Shkreli and other investors.


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


On Monday, Mr Shkreli told Bloomberg News that firms that had previously owned the rights to the drug had been "virtually giving it away". He added: "It is still under-priced compared to its peers."




anyway, cook your food and don't get the aids. you'll be fine.

 

[petros]

CBS is equal to CBC in their understanding of legal and technical terms.

I'll explain it once. Then you'll get all pissy and snarky and I'll ignore you, OK?

The name of the drug is pyrimethamine. Daraprim is a brand name. It is manufactured by Glaxo, and Turing has the exclusive distribution rights for the U.S. That means that Glaxo will sell Daraprim only to Turing for U.S. distribution. There are no other manufacturers of pyrimethamine in the U.S.

There are manufacturers of pyrimethamine in other countries, including India. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved foreign-manufactured pyrimethamine for sale in the U.S.

CBS is misusing the term "generic." It appears from the article you posted that they are using it to mean "out of patent." Which pyrimethamine is. The Daraprim brand of pyrimethamine's distribution in the U.S. is limited by Glaxo's contract with Turing. And only by that contract.

The only other limitations on the ability of others to manufacture and/or sell pyrimethamine in the U.S. are government regulations.

That's nice.

So it looks like the hedge fund dude is just looking to make a fast buck.

Or unload unprofitable line.