The Crazy Price of US Pharmacuticals
For $US20, a group of high school students has created 3.7 grams of an active ingredient used in the medicine Daraprim, which would sell in the United States for between $US35,000 and $US110,000.
Pyrimethamine, the active ingredient in Daraprim, treats a parasitic infection in people with weak immune systems such as pregnant women and HIV patients.
In August 2015, the price of Daraprim in the US rose from $US13.50 per tablet to $US750 when Turing Pharmaceuticals, and its controversial then-chief executive Martin Shkreli, acquired the drug's exclusive rights and hiked up the price.
Turing Pharmaceuticals continue to sell the only FDA-approved form of the drug in the US, and last year, said federal and state health schemes answered questions of access and affordability.
In most countries, including Australia, Daraprim is sold for between $1 to $2 per pill.
A second US-based company, Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, made an alternative compound to Daraprim ? sold for US$1 a dose ? but the drug is not FDA-approved.
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