Another Pharma Company Recaptures a Generic Medication

Applehu Akbar writes: Daraprim, currently used as a niche AIDS medication, was developed and patented by Glaxo (now GlaxoSmithKlein) decades ago. Though Glaxo's patent has long since expired, a startup called Turing Pharmaceuticals has been the latest pharma company to 'recapture' a generic by using legal trickery to gain exclusive rights to sell it in the US. Though Turing has just marketing rights, not a patent, on Daraprim, it takes advantage of pharma-pushed laws that forbid Americans from shopping around on the world market for prescriptions. Not long ago, Google was fined half a billion dollars by the FDA for allowing perfectly legal Canadian pharmacies to advertise on its site. So now that Turing has a lock on Daraprim, it has raised the price from $13.50 a pill to $750. In 2009 another small pharma company inveigled an exclusive on the longstanding generic gout medication colchicine from the FDA, effectively rebranding the unmodified generic so they could raise its price by a similar percentage.

Comments

Re:Or just use homeopathy?

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

What about just using homeopathic treatments instead?

Yeah, but if you forgot to take your homeopathic meds, you'd overdose.

Re:Or just use homeopathy?

[TsuruchiBrian]

Or praying. Has anyone tried praying? Or Magic?

Re:Shop elsewhere if you need this drug

[Spy Handler]

Corporate profits.

In case you haven't noticed, American politicians are more than willing to entrench corporate profits into law.

This is why we should all vote for Donald Trump. Bush and Clinton will do whatever Big Pharma tells them to do, but Trump won't.

Re:Shop elsewhere if you need this drug

[PopeRatzo]

This is why we should all vote for Donald Trump.

Clearly, you have some expertise with pharmaceuticals.