Since the news that Turing Pharmaceuticals had jacked up the price of
the drug Daraprim by 5,000% broke in September, former CEO Martin
Shkreli has become perhaps the most-hated public figure in America, resigned from his job and been arrested on civil and criminal securities fraud charges.
While much has changed in Shkreli’s life, when he testifies before the
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Thursday those who use Daraprim will be paying the exact same price they’ve paid for the last four months: $750 per pill. Fresh
from drubbings in the press and presidential candidates, Shkreli said
in late September that he would cut the cost of the drug, which cost
$13.50 a pop before Turing acquired it and which many patients must take
daily for years.
He didn’t say how much the price would be lowered, but
it didn’t matter—he would swiftly renege on is promise. In late
November, Turing announced discounts of up to 50% for hospitals—where
only patients requiring hospitalization would benefit from the
reduction—along with smaller, less costly bottles of the drug. The
embattled biopharmaceutical company sought to portray its price hike as
costly only to insurance companies and not consumers, according to
documents.
The company also established patient assistance programs to take the
focus away from what a 5,000% increase in price seemed likely to do to
patient access, said the memo, which summarized more than 250,000 pages
of Turing documents. But patients were still slapped with co-pays ranging from $1,000 to even more than $16,000, according to the memo. Access
to the drug has also been impeded on the state level, where health
departments—normally eligible for discounted Medicaid rates on
drugs—have had difficulty gaining access, said Sean Dickson, manager of
health care access at the National Alliance of State and Territorial
AIDS Directors. And while hospitals can get discounted access to
Daraprim, those terms are negotiated individually, and would only
benefit patients getting initial treatment with the drug.
Daraprim is used to treat parasitic infections and prevent a nervous system infection in those with HIV.
