Price of Daraprim going down after hike sparked outrage
According to Martin Shkreli, founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals.
Earlier this week, the news that a pharmaceutical company raised the price of a 62-year-old drug Daraprim by over 5,000 percent sparked outrage. In light of the backlash, Martin Shkreli, the founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals, has started to back down.
“I think that it makes sense to lower the price in response to the anger that was felt by people,’’ he told NBC News. He did not specify what the new price would be.
After Turing acquired the drug, the company raised the price from $13.50 a tablet to $740 a tablet overnight, an increase of 5,455 percent.
The New York Times first brought the story to light, but when the Times tried to contact Shkreli again after his NBC News interview, Shkreli declined to comment and told the paper that their “relationship is over.’’
This is not the first instance of price gouging for drugs, but this case garnered intense attention. Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton tweeted:
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Daraprim fights toxoplasmosis, an infection that especially can impact people with weakened immune systems, like AIDS and cancer patients.
Shkreli told NBC News that his decision to lower the price was in direct relation to the public outrage.
“Yes it is absolutely a reaction — there were mistakes made with respect to helping people understand why we took this action,’’ he told NBC News.
Shkreli tweeted that he will no longer give any interviews to the media, but has since made his tweets protected.
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