Drug with rage-inducing >5,000% price-hike now has $1/pill competitor

Different company developed alternative in response to $750-per-pill price tag.

See article by Beth Mole at Ars Technica of Condé Nast.

"Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company that last month raised the price of the decades-old drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750, now has a competitor.

Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company based in San Diego, announced today that it has made an alternative to Daraprim that costs about a buck a pill—or $99 for a 100-pill supply.

“While we respect Turing's right to charge patients and insurance companies whatever it believes is appropriate, there may be more cost-effective compounded options for medications, such as Daraprim,” Mark L. Baum, CEO of Imprimis, said in a news release.

The alternative is not exactly the same as Daraprim, but it’s close. Daraprim’s active ingredient is pyrimethamine, which has been available since 1953 for the treatment of parasitic diseases (namely malaria and toxoplasmosis). Imprimis’ alternative also contains pyrimethamine as well as leucovorin, which the company said helps to reverse pyrimethamine’s negative effects on bone marrow.

Until now, Turing was the sole source of a pyrimethamine-based drug, which is often prescribed to patients with compromised immune systems such as those suffering from AIDS and cancer.

The price increase of Daraprim, announced last month, sparked widespread outrage against the company and its founder and chief executive, Martin Shkreli. The move by Imprimis is in direct response to those events, and the company said it plans to produce more cheap alternative drugs. In the news release, the company announced the start of a new program called Imprimis Cares, which will ensure affordable versions of the 7,800 generic FDA-approved drugs."

From the USA Today

"To be sure, the FDA has not approved Imprimis’ compounded drug formulations as a recommended treatment for toxoplasmosis.

But doctors can prescribe the medications for individuals when they perceive it to be a viable alternative treatment."

From Alex Tabarrok

"Imprimis Pharmaceuticals did not apply for approval to sell a generic version of Daraprim. As I argued earlier, that would take years and cost millions of dollars. Instead, it is doing an old-style end-run of the FDA process by offering its alternative under the compounding pharmacy laws. That means that it can only sell to order, on a patient by patient, prescription by prescription basis. Since Daraprim is not widely used this may work. Indeed, I hope this end run works but my reading of the act is that compounders can only supply drugs in large quantities if they are on the FDA’s shortage list. Perhaps the FDA will look the other way, however, in order to send Turing and similar firms a message."