RAW STORY
A San Diego-based company announced on Thursday that it would compete
with Martin Shkreli’s Turing Pharmaceuticals by offering the same drug
used to help AIDS and cancer patients for $1 a pill, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, a compounding-drug firm, said it would
begin selling its own version of the generic drug pyrimethamine, which
Turing was marketing under the name Daraprim. Shkreli was roundly
criticized last month after his company raised the price for the drug
from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill after acquiring the patent.
The version Imprimis will be selling includes pyrimethamine and
another generic drug, leucovorin, which is typically used to help cancer
patients going through chemotherapy. The two drugs are the active
ingredients in Daraprim.
Mark Baum, Imprimis’ CEO, said his company plans to offer similar compounded drugs soon.
“We are looking at all of these cases where the sole-source generic companies are jacking the price way up,” he told the Associated Press. “There’ll be many more of these.”
According to Baum, his company’s mix of the two drugs has not been
approved by the Food and Drug Administration. However, both the
ingredients themselves and the company’s compounding work have been
approved. The drug can only be sold after being prescribed by a doctor
to a specific individual. The company is selling a bottle of 100 pills
for $99 through its website.
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