October 8, 2015

The Pharma Jerk We All Hated Last Month Still Hasn’t Dropped the Price of That Drug

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Two weeks ago, Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli promised to drop the price of Daraprim, a parasite-fighting drug, after raising it from $13.50 a tablet to $750 a tablet. But so far the price tag hasn’t budged.

Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager who acquired Turing in August, first drew criticism after a USA Today article reported the 5,000 percent price hike. He then told ABC News in September that the company would “lower the price of Daraprim to a point that is more affordable and is able to allow the company to make a profit, but a very small profit.”

Business Insider writes:

That hasn’t happened yet. A 30-day, 30-pill supply of Daraprim would cost me $27,006 at my local pharmacy.

That boils down to about $900 a pill, which includes the wholesale cost, along with specific pharmacy fees based on the zip code I gave the pharmacy.

So while the price of the drug hasn’t gotten any higher since Shkreli hiked it 5,000%, it hasn’t gotten any lower since he promised to reduce it either. Turing did not respond to Business Insider’s request for clarification about this price.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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