The indicative NHS cost per pill of
Daraprim is PS2.30, compared to PS619 in the US.
The Collins English Dictionary defines a "profiteer" as "one who makes excessive profits, especially by taking advantage of a shortage of supply to charge exorbitant prices." Think of Martin Shkreli, who raised the price of the
Daraprim drug over 5,000 percent and was called "the most hated man in America" in the press.
For just one recent example, Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of
Daraprim tablets from $13.50 to $750 per tablet in just one day.
Soon after Shkreli bought the distribution rights for
Daraprim, a critical drug for people living with HIV and AIDS in order to prevent infection, he grossly increased the price of the medication from $13.50 to $750 a pill overnight.
There is no shortage of examples that help explain that response, whether it is Martin Shkreli (
Daraprim), Mylan (the Epi-pen), or the spiral of increases in the sticker price for a wide array of brand-name drugs.
(4) For example, Martin Shkreli's company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, purchased the exclusive rights to the drug
Daraprim (pyrimethamine), then promptly raised the price per pill from $13.50 to S750.00.
He also said that everyone who needs it would be able to afford the drug,
Daraprim. "My case is a silly witch hunt perpetrated by self-serving prosecutors," he had once said on Facebook.
When Martin Shkreli, the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, hiked the price of the toxoplasmosis drug
Daraprim -- a lifesaving treatment for AIDS patients -- from $13.50 per tablet to $750, his reputation tanked.
The ongoing pricing debate reached a pinnacle at the time when then-chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli, hiked the price of an old med,
Daraprim, by more than 5,000% in 2015.
House Oversight & Government Reform Committee explored dramatic price increases even for decades-old medicines like the ubiquitous EpiPen and
Daraprim, a 65-year-old drug whose price spiked by 5,000 percent after it was bought by a company led by smirking "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli.
In August 2015, a company called Turing Pharmaceuticals, led by CEO Martin Shkreli, bought the rights to a drug called
Daraprim, which is used to treat a parasite that affects people with weakened immune systems.