A pharmaceutical start up looking to make big money with a 62-year old drug whose price they raised 5500% now says they’ll drop the price. But by how much?
Daraprim, a decades-old pharmaceutical used to help AIDS and cancer patients with life-threatening parasitic infections jumped in price from $13 a pill to $750 a pill when the rights to the drug were sold to a start up run by a former hedge fund manager.
After the New York Times ran a story about the 5500% price-gouging, and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted about it – causing pharmaceutical companies’ stock prices to take a dive – the nation grew outraged.
Martin Shkreli, the founder of Turning Pharmaceuticals and a former hedge fund manager who reportedly took a similar tact with another drug, scalping needy patients, refused to cut the price back to $13, promising all week he would not budge, as you can see in the interview above.
But minutes ago Shkreli announced he would respond to public pressure and drop the price, but he has refused to state yet how much.
In response, Hillary Clinton offered this tweet:
UPDATE I: 7:38 PM EDT –
Below is a letter dated Monday. Sept. 21, from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Elijah Cummings to Turing notifying the company they will investigate the price increase. Â
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This article has been updated with a newer news video.Â
Thanks to reader Christopher Rioux for the Sanders/Cummings letter.
Image: Screenshot via CNBCÂ