Martin Shkreli To Raise the Price of Another Life-saving Drug

Pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli has been acquiring quite a huge following for himself recently in issued related to overpriced drugs and excessive spending behavior. Turing Pharmaceuticals, under Shkreli's command, recently increased the price of a drug used to treat AIDS patients. From an initial price of $13.50, the drug's market value skyrocketed to a whopping $750. Shkreli has made a number of enemies from this move and it seems as if it is only the beginning.

The "pharma boy" is now making arrangements and moving to submit benznidazole for FDA approval next year, after buying rights to the drug last month. The said drug is used to treat patients with Chagas disease.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, their approximately 300,000 people living in the US that are suffering from this deadly disease. Most of the infected are immigrants from Latin America where the disease's outbreak has been contracted more than 8 million people.

The Chagas disease is a parasitic infection that lead to fatal heart complications. The disease is very rare outside Latin America which makes KaloBios Pharmaceuticals' $2 million purchase of rights to benznidazole very alarming.

In an interview with the New York Times, the director of a Chagas treatment center Dr. Sheba Meymandi says, "It's caused a lot of angst in the Chagas community," he continues, "Everyone's in an uproar."

Currently, the selling of benznidazole is not yet allowed in the US but doctors giving free treatment to Chagas patients using benznidazole. While in Latin America, the said drug is sold between $50 to $100 that is two-months course worth of treatment.

Shkreli announces to the public that the new price of the Chagas drug would be equal to the hepatitis  C treatment. This treatment costs at least $60,000.

The FDA approval for benznidazole will make the drug more accessible to the public. Rachel Cohen, regional executive director of the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative in North America says, "People affected by this disease in the United States are poor, are marginalized, have very limited access to health care to begin with. It would be catastrophic." Without sufficient funds, the proposed pricing of the drug will defeat the good effect of removing its experimental label.