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High School Chemists Shatter "Pharma Bro" Drug Pricing

Australian schoolboys spend pennies to recreate a drug that costs $750 a tablet.

High School Chemists Shatter "Pharma Bro" Drug Pricing

[DIGEST: SHM, Chicago Tribune]

In September 2015, Martin Shkreli, the hedge fund manager and CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, caused widespread outrage when he obtained the manufacturing license for a drug known as Daraprim and raised its price 5,000 percent, from $13.50 to $750 per tablet. Daraprim, a generic drug known as pyrimethamine that is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines, was originally created 62 years ago as an antimalarial medication, but has since been found to be effective in treating infections caused by toxoplasmosis, especially in people with HIV and cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment. Shkreli’s audacious move underscored the potential for price-gouging by pharmaceutical companies.

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