Express Scripts Pushing $1 alternative To Turing's $750 Daraprim Pills
from the almost-competition dept
When last we checked in with the internet's least-liked human being, the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals was backpeddaling on his promise to lower the cost of the AIDS and cancer fighting drug Daraprim, and hiding it ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the hopes that fewer people would notice (it worked relatively well). CEO Martin Shkreli, you'll recall, increased the price for Daraprim from $13.50 per pill to $750 -- a 5000% or so mark up for a sixty-two-year-old medication. Shkrelli brought renewed attention to the skyrocketing prices of generics thanks to (ab)using restricted distribution to deny samples to generics manufacturers.But there may be a small ray of sunshine in what's an otherwise dismal tale of greed. Prescription drug manager Express Scripts has indicated that the company will soon promote use of a compounded medicine that contains the same active ingredient as Daraprim, and offer it at a fraction of the price. Express Scripts manages prescriptions for tens of millions of Americans and will be pushing the compounded alternative made by Imprimis Pharmaceuticals. The new compounded alternative includes Daraprim’s active ingredient, pyrimethamine, as well as leucovorin, included to treat side effects.
The end result will be something that almost looks like competition:
"Compounded drugs are customized formulations made by pharmacies for particular, named patients. That requirement restricts how directly Imprimis can compete with Turing. For instance, hospitals cannot stock the compounded version to use for patients coming to the emergency room.It's a bit of a cumbersome tap dance (so glad we're still using faxes in the age of gigabit fiber), but at least it's an alternative. Impremis has stated it plans to offer the compounded drug for as low as 100 capsules for $99. Express Scripts in turn will help speed delivery of the cheaper option, working with the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association to inform medical professionals about the alternative. Turing has so far responded by telling media outlets that "in addition to being potentially unsafe and ineffective, the compounded product is unnecessary."
Imprimis, which is publicly traded, is not allowed to make a direct copy of Daraprim. So its capsule contains both pyrimethamine and leucovorin, a drug that is often prescribed with Daraprim to ease certain side effects. If a doctor writes a prescription for Daraprim, Express Scripts or pharmacies cannot substitute the compounded drug produced by Imprimis. So physicians will have to write a prescription specifically for the compounded drug and fax it to Imprimis."
Granted, the actual impact may still be low; Express Scripts states it only had 350 patients who used Daraprim last year. Still, it's the principle of the thing, and it's nice to see the market -- even if it has to jump through hoops to do so -- giving Shkreli and Turing a few quick kicks to the shins.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: competition, daraprim, drugs, martin shkreli, pharmaceuticals, prescriptions
Companies: express scripts, imprimis, turing pharmaceuticals
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Is this not productive in the long term?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Is this not productive in the long term?
Oh yeah - they don't give a shit about that either.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"...tale of greed."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: "...tale of greed."
Free market principles only work when freedom exists in the marketplace, and that means strong, healthy competition. When there isn't competition, everything breaks down and you end up under a system of monopoly economics, which looks more like extortion than capitalism, especially when the product being sold is necessary to prolong life.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: "...tale of greed."
It most certainly is.
Free market principles ... blah blah blah...
You seem to be confusing free market economics and capitalism. They are not the same thing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Even proper Republicans don't call this capitalism.
If it were, the rest of the world would have laughed at this jerk as they all released their own version of this $750.
No. What we actually have is a regulatory enforced monopoly.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Even proper Republicans don't call this capitalism.
Yes. Patents, copyrights, etc., which capitalists love (although they often pretend otherwise, like wolves sneaking up on sheep).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Even proper Republicans don't call this capitalism.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Even proper Republicans don't call this capitalism.
The problem here is permitting intellectual monopoly maximalists to characterise their temporary privileges as property rights. They get away with it because property rights and the rent-seeking that goes with it is essential to a capitalist/market-led economy and anyone who opposes property rights is a librul soshalist commie pinko.
Limiting property rights and calling out BS over the definition of property will help to cage the beast but I fear I am alone in saying this.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: "...tale of greed."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: "...tale of greed."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Capitalism?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
to inform medical professionals about the alternative.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Practical question: are there any doctors/veterinarians who could legally prescribe horse medicine for humans? ...
Still, this is just one drug, and not even the only one Shkreli is involved with. Before Daraprim, there was Thiola. And we'll see what comes next.
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2014/09/11/the_most_unconscionable_drug_price_hik e_i_have_yet_seen
This will happen again... unless the loopholes are closed.
Quote from comments in the link above:
“If anyone can prevent other generics making from obtaining samples of compound for testing…” (for FDA approval)
Fix seems simple enough, mandate generic manufacturers file formulation info with the FDA who maintain it in an open source data base.
Does that make sense?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Impact may still be low
If each of those patients was buying 1 pill per day for a year, they'd be paying Turing $273,750 each. That's a total of $95.8 million, which is not exactly a small amount of money.
And that's just 350 patients! Imagine the financial impact if Express Scripts manage to steal the majority of Turing's customers... We could be talking billions of dollars a year.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"It's not my fault my greed resulted in the prices skyrocketing!"
Blatantly incorrect, but given why he's wrong, it's not surprising he'd lie instead of admitting the truth.
When the drug was still affordable for the majority of patients, and they could get it without too much hassle, the 'new' drug would indeed have been unnecessary. However, by letting his greed get the best of him, and pricing it so insanely high, he created the need. It is entirely his fault that someone needed to step in and offer the drug at a more affordable rate.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: "It's not my fault my greed resulted in the prices skyrocketing!"
There's no need, those patients can either choose to pay his high price for the drug, or they can choose to die. I imagine Shkrelli would prefer the latter, rather than competition.
And is it just me or does Shkrelli sound like an alien species from Star Trek?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: "It's not my fault my greed resulted in the prices skyrocketing!"
See? Free choice! Yay!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
copper door to door?
Certainly. Even old faxes use fiber nowadays (from the cabinet in your street to that in the recipients street).
Even though Telco & Cable claim you till do not need fiber, they heavily rely on it themselves.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why no "direct copy"?
Why not?
Given that (per the article) it's 62 years old, it must be long since out of patent. What is there which would forbid anyone who wants to do so from making a direct copy of it, using the information filed in the patent?
I was under the impression that the reason there isn't / hasn't been off-brand competition for Daraprim is that getting FDA approval for a generic alternative would require expensive studies, even if the generic is chemically identical to the brand-name drug. That's ridiculous enough as it is, but if Imprimis is making a non-identical alternative, that should certainly have to go through at least as many studies to get approval - so how could the hoops to jump through for producing the identical generic be any more prohibitive?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]