In September 2015, a drug company's CEO Martin Shkreli ordered a price hike of pyrimethamine from 13.5 to 750 dollars per pill, after his purchasing exclusive rights to distribution.
Pyrimethamine is a medicine to treat life-threatening parasitic infection in disadvantaged AIDS patients. The reason for lofty profits from jacking up the price is nothing other than greed. There were no development costs because this drug has existed for over 60 years. To prohibit manufacturers from "price gouging" on essential off-patent or generic drugs, the court had ordered Shkreli to repay the profits, and barred him from the industry for life.
I didn't know this shameful story until my friend recommended me Elisabeth Rosenthal's book An American Sickness. I couldn't agree more with Elisabeth Rosenthal that doctors in training are generally taught little to nothing about the cost of medicine. We have been taught how to prescribe medicine, but knew little about the market.
Neither doctors nor patients could have heard the story how a drug company intentionally moved its acne medicine from one form to another three times in order to keep its costly brand-name drug status. We knew nothing about the tactic of developing a "new" version (that could be chewed, or broken up and sprinkled on applesauce) to eke out time with patent protection. We didn't know that drugmakers can gain extra months of protection by filing a lawsuit to stymie or delay the launch of a generic.
Now I know.
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