The news just keeps getting worse for greedy pharma bro Martin Shkreli. San Diego-based Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced this week that it will be producing an alternative to Daraprim. The price? $1 per tablet. That’s $749 less than Shkreli’s price.
Shkreli is the owner and CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. He was named “the most hated man in America” by several media outlets last month after he raised the price of Daraprim, a drug used by some HIV patients, from $13.50 to $750 per tablet.
Related: Price-Gouging Pharma CEO Can’t Seem To Handle The Entire Internet Hating Him After All
“While we respect Turing’s right to charge patients and insurance companies whatever it believes is appropriate, there may be more cost-effective compounded options for medications, such as Daraprim,” Imprimis CEO Mark L. Baum said in a press release.
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The press release added that the new drug won’t be exactly the same as Daraprim… it will actually be better:
Daraprim’s active ingredient is pyrimethamine, which has been available since 1953 for the treatment of parasitic diseases … Imprimis’ alternative also contains pyrimethamine as well as leucovorin, which the company said helps to reverse pyrimethamine’s negative effects on bone marrow.
“Today, some drug prices are simply out of control and we believe we may be able to help control costs by offering compounded alternatives to several sole source legacy generic drugs,” Baum said. “We are here to serve our patients and their physicians. We believe that when we do a great job serving our customers, our shareholders will also benefit.”
So far, Shkreli’s only response to his new competitor has been in a statement to U.S. Uncut, in which he simply said: “LOL.”
Related: Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Fakes Injury For Attention, Plan Backfires
Giancarlo85
As long as it is better and more effective… and has no dangerous side effects. This would put Shkreli out of business.
Shkreli will be laughing now… but he won’t make any money in the end.
Cam
That is why others in the Pharmaceutical industry were trying to knock some sense into that guy.
They were all ripping people off, but at a somewhat smaller scale. What he did, brought into stark relief what the industry does, but in such an obvious way that suddenly politicians who have known about this for decades were screaming that we need to reform the system. He paid tens of millions of dollars for the rights to make that pill with the understanding that he could charge a fortune for it.
The second Pharmaceutical company is brilliant, not only do they have an opportunity to make a small profit, but suddenly they are going to be looked at as this wonderful altruistic organization while Shkreli descends into bankruptcy.
Bob LaBlah
Let me see if I have this correct; Truvada and Prep can help stop the spread of HIV but can’t cure it. The cost of both drugs are astronomical with Prep being only for the rich, more or less, to have unprotected sex while Truvada is subsidized by the government to help the poor ones whose only mistake was giving in to the same passion as the rich.
Unless my calculations are wrong it sounds like we’re dealing with a blatant case of rich queen/poor queen with the poor ones not thinking clearly as to just what the hell is going on here and the rich not noticing it until they get kicked out of sugar daddy’s house and life. Hopefully someone can prove me wrong. And I do admit I am not a mathematical genius.
1EqualityUSA
Imprimis shkreli-ed him sideways.
Will Glitzern
Haha! Best news all day.
Tobi
I’m always stunned at US pharmaceutical prices. Daraprim is available in the UK at 66¢ a tab. If you needed it, it’d be worth taking a vacation here until the Imprimis combo version becomes available, save yourself $30,000+ over a 6-week course! I’m surprised Americans haven’t protested en-masse about drug prices in the USA. You should at least be allowed to legally import prescription medication from other countries as long as you hold a valid US prescription.
Cam
@Bob LaBlah:
Easy, when a drug is first developed it is protected by a patent that allows the drug company to charge more for it to pay them back for the cost of the research and development of the drug. When the drug is no longer protected by pantents after a certain amount of time, other companies can make generics and really lower the price.
The Drug that Shkreli bought was old, and was being sold for about a dollar a pill. Then some other company bought it and raised the price to $13.00 a pill making a really tidy profit.
Where Shkreli was so stupid is that if he had bought the drug and doubled the price, doctors and patients would have noticed but it wouldn’t have been a news story, he was so ham fisted that he raised the price by 5000% and suddenly everybody was paying attention.
Another drug company saw an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, one, they could bankrupt Shkreli who paid tens of millions for the right to sell the drug, and keep him from making their industry look worse,
and two, they could make themselves look like the good guy savior for bringing that drug to patients at around a dollar a pill. They make a small profit, bankrupt a guy who could have taken down their industry, AND get great PR.
Damon Robbins
He’s going to win the Dick of the year award!
sanfranca1
@Bob LaBlah: PrEP is not a specific drug: PrEP means Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, and it’s the use of anti-HIV medication that keeps HIV negative people from becoming infected.
ParkerSparks
@Bob LaBlah: Truvada (a combination of Viread and Emtriva) is the anti-viral drug used in the PrEP protocol. Pre-exposure prophylaxis = PrEP. There is no hiv drug named Prep.
ParkerSparks
@sanfranca1: Sorry I pretty much duplicated what you posted. We were in process at the same time.
Bob LaBlah
@Tobi: I am getting a bit off topic here but maybe you can answer this question; in the public school system of Britain are art and music available to ALL or just in selected areas as it is here in the U.S. of A? I am a curious mind who would like to know. Thanks.
Bob LaBlah
@Cam….Thanks. For some reason I am getting a “your comment is waiting moderation” after numerous “your posting too fast” messages. Which is it is beyond me. No profanity or anything derogatory towards you or anyone else. Not even the ass whom the article is about. Why they simply don’t come right out and say “we prefer you not to comment” is beyond me. It would be a lot easier to tell the truth than lead one on.
Tobi
@Bob LaBlah: I’m assuming you mean state schools that are free, weirdly we use the term “public school” to mean a private fee paying establishment, don’t ask! Yup, art and music are available to all, regardless of location, although after the age of 13 or so, when you choose your subjects for GCSE you can choose to drop them in favour of others.
Jerry Green
Would be nice to see him go bankrupt!
AlliterationAddict
@Bob LaBlah: Truvada and PrEP are more or less the same thing. PrEP stands for Pre Exposure Prophylactic. That isn’t a specific medicine or brand. It’s just a category of medicines. Technically speaking, a vaccine is also a type of prophylactic. Currently, the only antiviral medications that are effective prophylactics for HIV is a combination of tenofovir and emtricitabine, which is marketed under the brand name Truvada. But since that’s really the only effective HIV prophylactic on the market right now, you often hear Truvada and PrEP used interchangeably. But Truvada is PrEP, and you can’t find any types of PrEP right now that aren’t Truvada.
notevenwrong
@Bob LaBlah, Truvada/PrEP is covered by most insurance providers in the U.S., by Medicaid in many states, and through free clinics in some large cities, so no, it is not just for the rich.
I pay nothing for mine.
Still, there are people in the U.S. who have difficulty obtaining it because of various reasons including price. Gilead makes huge amounts of money off it, unfairly so, though that is the result of the predatory capitalistic system you support here in the U.S. if you vote Democratic or Republican. In other countries, generics for Truvada are available for a tiny fraction of the price.
tusgold
Hillary Clinton filed a complaint with the FTC and another agenvy of the feds to rap this killer
Billy Budd
Shkreli is fucked up and destroyed.
Alistair Wiseman
I’m glad to see this greedy Democr@t/Soci@list supporter get his comeuppance.
Sluggo2007
So, what will he do now? Reduce the price and come out so gays will buy his drug?
1EqualityUSA
“comeuppance” my geek-o-meter is in the red, Alistair Wiseman. Are you from this century?
Cam
@Alistair Wiseman: The fact that any posting is an excuse for you to attack a political party shows that you’re pretty much deranged.
Alistair Wiseman
@1EqualityUSA:
No, actually I was born in the 20th Century. 🙂
Yes, your geek-o-meter is operating correctly. I occasionally enjoy the use of antiquated and folksy words. Geek? Yes! 🙂
Alistair Wiseman
@Cam:
Some say deranged, others say factual.
1EqualityUSA
You own your geekdom with panache. Why do you like the other side? They’re so dark.
woodin
Any idea what his financial loss is?
Alistair Wiseman
@1EqualityUSA:
Do your mean the Republicans? I have already been a Democrat in my youth. I thought they were going to save me from those dastardly Republicans. 🙂
Cam
@Alistair Wiseman:
No actually deranged, you can’t mention or talk about anything else without pulling it into your little web of conspiracies. That is derangement.
1EqualityUSA
Find a lifeboat that has the ability to float.
1EqualityUSA
To save you is not the role of either party. My guess is that when you were at your most successful, you were a member of the GOP. Clinging onto a party that has sunk to such lows seems nostalgic. It’s ok to let this party go down the hole. You don’t have to defend their insanity, despite your past relationship with it.
Alistair Wiseman
@1EqualityUSA:
You stated, “To save you is not the role of either party.”
True, but I felt that way when I was quite young. There are thousands of gays that feel the Democrats are going to save them from the Republicans.
You stated, “You don’t have to defend their insanity, despite your past relationship with it.”
I have never defended the “insanity” of what Republicans do. That is why I call myself a conservative, as Republicans can do some stupid things.
Alistair Wiseman
@Cam:
There is no “little web of conspiracies”, just addressing a factual point.
Yes, silly me, I realize now. Only one party is allowed to vocalize the deficiency of the other party.
The lack of self-awareness on the left is astounding.
1EqualityUSA
Scalia is an example of some deep political and religious ties. Had the Republicans had an opportunity to line the Supreme Court with more of those plants, I would not be fairly represented. The Democrats gave me equality and I’ll never forget how it made me feel. Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan and other affiliated justices all felt that my status in this Country was equal to that of other more popular Americans. All the while, I detested having our rights dangling before our twitching nostrils, beholden to one party to achieve equality felt as though our plight was being used. Equality is more than an election, more than a vote, more than a word.
Bob LaBlah
@notevenwrong: Ok, I think I now understand.
If you have insurance you can go to the doctor and get the Truvada at a discount?
If you don’t have insurance, you pay for it out of pocket?
If you have HIV, then the government subsidizes the cost or pays for it for you based on income?
@Tobi: Here in the midwest it is atrocious. Many of the high schools do not offer advanced math courses such as calculus, physics and the junior colleges amount to nothing but the 13th grade. They, the community colleges, give open book tests in all subjects. I kid you not. But I do know why. There is such a shortage of nurses one is lucking to hear a nurse without an accent. Its just that bad. Not one hospital exists where half the nursing staff isn’t foreign born. I’m talking about the entire midwest.
Cam
@Alistair Wiseman:
NO, your derangement is because if this was a post about two women turning 95 and having a pie bake off you would still use it as an excuse to attack Hillary.
Deranged.
1EqualityUSA
Derango, a new sheriff in town. This week’s episode features two notorious members of the community, both in their mid-ninties, having a pie bake-off. Sheriff Derango sets the record straight, never straighter. Equality, be damned, Derango’s here in his 501 button fly jeans, the weight of his gun pushing manly bulges downward, “Substantiate your claims!” I belong to a conservative gang now, so you and your tribe best be gettin’ on. “No squaw will be President, as long as I have breath in my body.” Sheriff Derango, pow-pow. Self-awareness on the left hung out to dry in the noonday sun.
Lance Mullholland
It’s kinda good to re-visit the outrage of the Act-Up and Silence = Death days.
Don’t f*ck with AIDS survivors or the weak in our community! I stay strong on the memories of 41 people whom I knew who should still be alive, deciding what to wear for Halloween…