Capitalism...the worst images

[Chris James]

As if it isn't bad enough that a sociopathic investor has taken over the drug company that holds the patent on one of the most frequently used AIDS drugs, and then boosted the price 5000 percent, the whole industry rejects the idea of cost control. Read this:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/big-pharma-attacks-clinton%e2%80%99s-plan-to-combat-drug-prices/ar-AAeC8Vn?li=BBieTUX&ocid=LENDHP

With all the money these clowns make they have bought off Congress and prevented opening the US market to drugs from overseas at lower prices. As I recall from earlier articles, the CEO of this big Pharma company told reporters too bad and gave them the finger when asked if he was price gouging those who need the medication. This is why we need gay assassins.

This man does not understand what it means to suffer.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/turing-pharmaceuticals-ceo-martin-shkreli-defends-5000-percent-price-hike-on-daraprim-drug/

Greedy prick.

[Camy]

'Greedy prick' is putting it kindly. I don't think I've felt so outraged and angry in a very long while. Shkreli is either badly deranged or just plain evil. Either way he deserves an eternity with satan, his imps, and a plethora of sharpened pointy things.

Watch the interview on CBS where he says the 5000% price hike is actually 'altruistic.' Smarmy git.

[Cole Parker]

I think it's time to start shaming some Congressmen into action. Let him raise his prices as high as he likes, and at the same time let overseas competition come in and humble the prick.

C

[E.J.]

Apparently this guy has a history......

http://usuncut.com/class-war/pharma-ceo-hacked-legal-rival-harassed-wife-teenage-son/

http://usuncut.com/class-war/pharma-ceo-jacked-aids-drug-price-5500-sued-fraud-stalking-looting/

and internet pressure pays off:

http://usuncut.com/news/pharma-ceo-rolls-back-price-hike/

This drug is over 60 years old. It shouldn't still be under patent protection

[DesDownunder]

He looks like Damien to me (from The Omen.)

[colinian]

It's a ridiculous and money-grubbing way of gouging those who can't afford a prescription drug that has only one supplier. And that former hedge fund manager decided to go into the prescription drug business because he saw, with no limit on the price of prescription drugs that only hand one manufacturer, a huge profit machine.

So his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals went to GlaxoSmithKline and bought the rights to Daraprim (pyrimethamine) which is used for fighting toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by parasites transmitted to humans from infected cats. In healthy people toxoplasmosis usually has no or a very minor effect. In people who have compromised immune systems — especially those who have HIV/AIDS and including those with cancer who are on Chemotherapy, it is very serious and can lead to death if not treated. In pregnant women toxoplasmosis can result in serious damage to the fetus.

In 2014 there were fewer than 9,000 prescriptions written for this drug. That's not enough to get the attention of other drug manufacturers to start producing the generic version of this drug. Or maybe it's because there is another drug, spiramycin, which is routinely used to treat toxoplasmosis in Europe, Canada, and Mexico. But it is still considered experimental in the United States. Doctors can obtain it from the Food and Drug Administration but only for women who have toxoplasmosis and are in the first trimester of pregnancy. Others cannot obtain the drug in the U.S. But a quick trip across the border into Mexico and the drug is available from larger drugstores. Just don't get caught with it as you return across the border. Why isn't spiramycin available in the U.S.A.? You'd have to ask the FDA. Could it be that they were trying to support the profitability of the manufacturer of Daraprim, GlaxoSmithKline? Or did they think that there weren't enough tests on people with cancer or HIV/AIDS, even though it's been tested and used in Europe, Canada, and Mexico for that purpose for years. Who knows? They don't publish their reasons for inaction on approval of uses for a drug. If spiramycin was allowed for anyone who has toxoplasmosis, the price of Daraprim might collapse. Unless the drug manufacturers of spiramycin saw it as a profit machine in the U.S.A. and marketed it just a little less than Daraprim. Again, who knows what the drug manufacturers would do.

There are three things we could do in the U.S.A.:

1. Require prescription drugs to be sold at the same or a lower price than the lowest price the producer or supplier charges in other countries.

2. Allow individuals and resellers to import prescription drugs from Canada, which offers lower-cost drugs.

3. Give the FDA the power to cap prescription drug prices for Medicare recipients and those with critical life-threatening conditions.

This might help put these opportunistic prescription drug sharks like Turing Pharmaceuticals out of business.

Colin

[larkin]

What a weasel that guys is..

[Nigel Gordon]

What I want to know is how have they managed to obtain exclusive rights to a drug that is 69 years old? Even with standard extensions the original patent on the drug must be long expired. I think this one area where one of the generic drug makers in India should step in.

[Nick Deverill]

Rather like the extension to copyright the Happy Birthday song got

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/23/happy-birthday-how-popular-song-became-public-property

I'm not too sure the battle is over here though as it was my understanding "Good Day to You" was out of copyright, but by splitting the first note, it became a new tune - and thus copyrightable. Quite a lot of bands in the UK are very careful not to split the first note as that way, they didn't have to pay.

I'm all in favour of something being copyrightable - for the lifetime of the inventor/originator and his or her direct dependants and perhaps a reasonable period afterwards for commercial reasons. But using that argument, even 30 years is pushing it a bit.

[Cole Parker]

If true, it's absurd! Losing copyright protections because one note has been changed in an entire song, and not the pitch, just the rhythm? That's analogous to changing one 'the' in a story to an 'a'. I would certainly expect the language in the copyright law to read something to the extent that changes would have to be substantial and significant to void the protection.

C

[Lugnutz]

I heard that guy backed down in a hurry. Didn't say what the price was, but he didn't like being the most hated man on the planet.

[larkin]

I apologize for my salty language but it couldn't be helped..

I am sure that you've read the recent story in the news about the weasel, hedge funder who purchased the company that manufactured a drug essential for treating toxoplasmosis. As a marketing strategy he raised the price 5500%.

Forces unseen, have compelled this little weasel to sell the firm back to the original owners who have quietly doubled the old price.

If you think it was a humanitarian gesture, think again...

Currently, thanks to the affordable care act, the US government cannot negotiate wholesale drug costs. Why? Because it was the pharmaceuticals who wrote the legislation and whores that they are, our elected officials greedily took the money..

They got this guy in a corner and said, "You can't do that! You're gonna f*ck-up a good thing for all of us!"

The truth is they are all egregiously over charging. Thanks to the passive compliance of the government and with great precision, these corporations are pushing as far as the traffic will bare... In concert, they have a system and they can't have this little weasel coming in and ruining everything.

A side effect of this situation is that people with insufficient funds are trying to order from foreign pharmaceutical outlets most commonly in Canada.

The Fed's response is one: "Don't trust medications purchased abroad, they'll kill you!"

And 2: They use the Post Office to confiscate drug purchases considered illegal, depriving desperate people of their medication.

In a truly free market place you should be able to purchase drugs anywhere at the lowest price. These big corporations want a free market for themselves,...but not for us.

Do you see the contradiction?

Ask yourself, "Who the is the government working for?"

[ChrisR]

Hey there DesDownUnder - I suspect Damien would feel insulted! ;)

[ChrisR]

Shkreli, now criminally indicted for fraud (unrelated to the whole pharma scandal) was scheduled to testify before Congress on Tuesday of this week, but I suspect DC won't quite be back to normal so it likely won't happen. Oddly enough, since the testimony is about drug company prices and NOT the fraud indictment, he might be restricted from using the self-incrimination excuse to refuse. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say, whenever he gets around to saying it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/business/dealbook/congress-subpoenas-martin-shkreli-over-drug-prices.html?_r=0

[JamesSavik]

Shkreli was voted Douchebag of the year 2015 in a poll at GA.

[ChrisR]

Just to show what kids can do, a group of Australian teens decided to see if they could beat Shkreli's $750 price tag. Took them a while, but it seems they could manufacture it in their high school chem lab for $2. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-38153254

(And the article mentions that the drug cost in the rest of the world is $1.50)