Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

“Prices Rise as Morality Falls” – A Story of Turing Pharmaceuticals


Affiliations
1 Assistant Professor, Doon Business School, Mi-122, Behind Pharma City,Selaqui - 248011, Dehradun, India
2 Associate Professor, Doon Business School, Mi-122, Behind Pharma City, Selaqui - 248011, Dehradun, India
 

Turing Pharmaceuticals, guided through CEO Martin Shkreli, a start-up increased the price of Daraprim - the standard treatment for toxoplasmosis – by 5433% from $13.50 per pill to $750.00 per tablet. Such incident again brings the attention towards the unregulated drug price in the US, which diverges from other developed nations. Moreover, such cases raise eyebrows among the society and force people to understand the intersection of healthcare, business practices and justice. Price raised by Turing Pharmaceuticals has a devastating force on the low-income people of US. It delivers a devastating consequence on the patients, and in the difficult economic situation, 5000% hike in costs is unreasonable. Many stakeholders are affected by the steep cost of the drug. Hence, drug price becomes one of the political agenda for the political leaders. Thus, the price rise caused by a Turing Pharmaceutical company triggered the burning issue of Biopharma companies to put profit before patient’s health.


Keywords

Developed Nations, Drug Price, Economic Situations, Health, Healthcare, Profit, Turing Pharmaceuticals
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Baldelomar, R. 2016. Where Is The Line Between Ethical And Legal, Forbes.
  • Bomey, N. 2016. Martin Shkreli pleads the Fifth, then tweets about ‘imbeciles’ in Congress, USA Today.
  • Carrier, M. A. 2019. Higher Drug Prices from Anticompetitive Conduct: Three Case Studies. J. Legal Med., 39(2): 151–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/01947648.2 019.1645540
  • Chawan, V. S., Badwane, S. V., Gawand, K. V., & Chhaya, M. U. 2017. Analysis of price variation amongst differ- ent formulations of anxiolytic drugs available in Indian market. Int J Res Med Sci., 4(6): 2398–2401. https://doi. org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20161821
  • Chen, A. 2016. Daraprim, Drugs, and Development: Why the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a Patently Mixed Bag. Harvard International Review, 37(2): 15.
  • DeAngelis, C. D. 2016. Big pharma profits and the public loses. The Milbank Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468- 0009.12171
  • Ferris, S. 2016. Warren takes on Shkreli’s ‘unethical’ pricing, The Hill.
  • Fuller, R. L., & Goldfield, N. 2016. Paying for On-Patent Pharmaceuticals: Limit Prices and the Emerging Role of a Pay for Outcomes Approach J. Ambul Care Manage. 39(2): 143. https://doi.org/10.1097/JAC.0000000000000136
  • Houlton, S. 2015. Whatever the cost, Chemistry & Industry, Vol. 79: 41–41. https://doi.org/10.1002/cind.7911_14.x
  • Hurst, D. J. 2017. Restoring a reputation: invoking the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights to bear on pharmaceutical pricing. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 20(1): 105–117. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11019-016-9743-0
  • Izhar Baranes, A. 2017. Financialization in the American Pharmaceutical Industry: A Veblenian Approach. J. Econ. 51(2): 351–358. https://doi.org/10.1080/00213624.2017.13 20895
  • Lorenzetti, L. 2015. Here’s why Turing Pharmaceuticals says 5,000% price bump is necessary, Fortune, Health.
  • Marshall, J., Wood, S. J., & Stevens, J. P. 2016. Skyrocketing Drug Costs: Beyond the News and into Your Intensive Care Unit. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., 193(12): 1433–1434. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201601-0017LE
  • McCarthy, M. 2015a. Drug’s 5000% price rise puts spotlight on soaring US drug costs. BMJ: Br. Med. J. (Online), 351. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h5114
  • McCarthy, M. 2015b. US Senate committee launches inves- tigation into drug pricing. BMJ: Br. Med. J. (Online), 351. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h5989
  • McCormick, R. 2016. The FTC is investigating Martin Shkreli’s previous company for jacking up drug prices, The Verge.
  • Mclaughlin, K. 2015. Drug company that raised price of AIDS medication by 5,000% is being investigated by the New York Attorney General, Daily Mail, Australia.
  • McRae, J., Vogenberg, F. R., Beaty, S. W., Mearns, E., Varga, S., & Pizzi, L. 2016. A Review of US Drug Costs Relevant to Medicare, Medicaid, and Commercial Insurers Post- Affordable Care Act Enactment, 2010–2016. Pharmaco Economics: 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40273-016- 0458-0
  • Minemyer, P. 2021. Blue Cross MN files price goug- ing suit against ‘pharma bro’ Martin Shkreli, Vyera. FierceHealthcare: N.PAG-N.PAG.
  • Mintz, D. S. 2016. People, Nat Biotech, Vol. 34: 114– 114: Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3464
  • Osakwe, O. 2016. Drug Pricing and Control for Pharmaceutical Drugs. Social Aspects of Drug Discovery, Development and Commercialization: 255. https://doi. org/10.1016/B978-0-12-802220-7.00012-0
  • Pollack, A. 2015. Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight, The New York Times.
  • Prasad, V., Wang, R., Afifi, S. H., & Mailankody, S. 2017. The Rising Price of Cancer Drugs—A New Old Problem? Jama oncology, 3(2): 277–278. https://doi.org/10.1001/jam- aoncol.2016.4275
  • Rocha, M. d. M., de Andrade, E. P., Alves, E. R., Cândido, J. C., & Borio, M. d. M. 2020. Access to innovative medicines by pharma companies: Sustainable initiatives for global health or useful advertisement? Global Public Health, 15(6): 777–789. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2020.17 29391
  • VonFischer, A. 2016. Turing Pharmaceuticals AG Announces Development of New Drug Candidates for Toxoplasmosis, Health & Medicine Week, 160 ed.
  • Walters, J. 2015. Martin Shkreli: entrepreneur defends deci- sion to raise price of life-saving drug 50-fold, The Guardian.
  • Ward, A. 2015. Pharmaceuticals: Value over volume, Financial Times.
  • Wells, J. 2016. For pharma CEOs, a heavy dose of ethical questions, The Guardian

Abstract Views: 280

PDF Views: 137




  • “Prices Rise as Morality Falls” – A Story of Turing Pharmaceuticals

Abstract Views: 280  |  PDF Views: 137

Authors

Prashant Singh
Assistant Professor, Doon Business School, Mi-122, Behind Pharma City,Selaqui - 248011, Dehradun, India
Pushpa Kataria
Associate Professor, Doon Business School, Mi-122, Behind Pharma City, Selaqui - 248011, Dehradun, India

Abstract


Turing Pharmaceuticals, guided through CEO Martin Shkreli, a start-up increased the price of Daraprim - the standard treatment for toxoplasmosis – by 5433% from $13.50 per pill to $750.00 per tablet. Such incident again brings the attention towards the unregulated drug price in the US, which diverges from other developed nations. Moreover, such cases raise eyebrows among the society and force people to understand the intersection of healthcare, business practices and justice. Price raised by Turing Pharmaceuticals has a devastating force on the low-income people of US. It delivers a devastating consequence on the patients, and in the difficult economic situation, 5000% hike in costs is unreasonable. Many stakeholders are affected by the steep cost of the drug. Hence, drug price becomes one of the political agenda for the political leaders. Thus, the price rise caused by a Turing Pharmaceutical company triggered the burning issue of Biopharma companies to put profit before patient’s health.


Keywords


Developed Nations, Drug Price, Economic Situations, Health, Healthcare, Profit, Turing Pharmaceuticals

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.53739/samvad%2F2021%2Fv22%2F158811