Another Pharma Company Recaptures a Generic Medication
Proving once again that they truly don't care about the wellbeing of people...
Daraprim, currently used as a niche AIDS medication, was developed
and patented by Glaxo (now GlaxoSmithKlein) decades ago.
Though Glaxo's
patent has long since expired, a startup called Turing Pharmaceuticals
has been the latest pharma company to 'recapture' a generic by using
legal trickery to gain exclusive rights to sell it in the US.
Though
Turing has just marketing rights, not a patent, on Daraprim, it takes
advantage of pharma-pushed laws that forbid Americans from shopping
around on the world market for prescriptions. Not long ago, Google was
fined half a billion dollars by the FDA for allowing perfectly legal
Canadian pharmacies to advertise on its site.
So now that Turing has a
lock on Daraprim, it has raised the price from $13.50 a pill to $750.
In 2009 another small pharma company inveigled an exclusive on the
longstanding generic gout medication colchicine from the FDA,
effectively rebranding the unmodified generic so they could raise its
price by a similar percentage.
In response to puplic outcry CEO Martin Shkreli:
"The price will drop to a level where Turing will break even or make a "small profit," Shkreli told NBC.
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 isn’t 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 isn’t 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.
Oncologist and CBS News medical contributor Dr. David Agus disagreed.
"Patients shouldn't be taxed and charged for future research and development. Patients should pay for the drug they're getting and what they need in the situation that they are" Agus said.
"It's predatory practice and it's inappropriate," he added.
"Patients shouldn't be taxed and charged for future research and development. Patients should pay for the drug they're getting and what they need in the situation that they are" Agus said.
"It's predatory practice and it's inappropriate," he added.
Under the current pricing structure, it is estimated that the annual cost of treatment for toxoplasmosis, for the pyrimethamine component alone, will be $336,000 for patients who weigh less than 60 kilograms and $634,500 for patients who weigh more than 60 kilograms.
For diseases that have a relatively small number of patients that may
need a given medication, other companies often decide the drug is not
lucrative enough to justify wading into generics manufacturing.
Toxoplasmosis fits this bill, and the fact that no one else stepped up
to create a generic competitor means that Daraprim is essentially
treated like a new drug on the market.
And because Daraprim is the only
game in town, it provides an opportunity for startups like Turing to
swoop in, snag exclusive marketing rights, and spike the prices.
When Shkreli was CEO of Retrophin, the company purchased a kidney
medication approved by the FDA in 1988 called Thiola and increased the
cost from $1.50 per pill to $30 per pill.
That drug treated cystinuria,
a lifelong disease for which there is no known cure and which afflicts
about 20,000 patients in the United States.
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Ya but they have the resources to hire the right people with the expertise to get the job done in an elegant way.
This fellow is not taking the deep pockets factor into account from the proper perspective.
With rumors that Apple is not only moving ahead on its electric car initiative, but trying to accelerate its development, a former GM and BMW exec is giving a few words of warning.
Bob Lutz appeared on CNBC and
expressed his doubts
that Apple has a fighting chance to make any impact on the auto
industry.
"And when it comes to actually making cars," Lutz said, "there
is no reason to assume that Apple, with no experience, will suddenly do
a better job than General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota or Hyundai.
So I think this is going to be a gigantic money pit, but then it doesn't
matter.
I mean Apple has an embarrassment of riches, they don't know
where to put the cash anymore.
So if they burn 30 or 40 billion dollars
in the car business, no one's going to notice."
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The question has to come up, "Exactly why this man did what he did and what exactly was he planning on doing with the data?"
A former Morgan Stanley financial adviser who was fired in connection with a major breach of client information pleaded guilty to accessing client data and taking it home with him.
According to court records Galen Marsh copied names, addresses, account
numbers, investment information and other data for approximately
730,000 accounts.
"This action, which follows Morgan Stanley's initial
investigation and reporting of his misconduct, makes clear that misuse
of client account information will not be tolerated," the bank said in a
statement.
This fellow shot himself in the foot.
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A different viewpoint
In the short time since Trump declared his candidacy, he has performed a public service by exposing, however crudely and at times inadvertently, the posturings of both the Republicans and the Democrats and the foolishness and obsolescence of much of the political culture they share.
On the other hand...
Mexico is cracking down on undocumented boaters from America who enter its territorial waters.Without a fence to mark the international boundary, crossing by boat from San Diego into Mexico might seem deceptively easy. But San Diego sport fishermen and others drawn to the waters off Baja California should take heed: Mexico's federal government has been stepping up inspections, checking for passports, tourist permits, fishing permits and other documents.
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