Two lawmakers who have been investigating high drug prices are livid that a former hedge fund manager has yet to keep his promise to lower the price of a decades-old drug.
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said Friday that Turing Pharmaceuticals, led by CEO Martin Shkreli, hasn’t lowered the price of Daraprim, which it raised from $13.50 to $750 almost overnight and sparked a public outcry.
Shkreli said last month that his company would lower the price, but did not say how much or when. That hasn’t happened, according to the lawmakers.
“Instead of lowering the price as he promised, Mr. Shkreli hired an army of new Washington lobbyists and lawyers to stem the massive fallout from his actions and to stymie congressional oversight,” according to a joint statement from Cummings and the Vermont senator.
The two lawmakers, who have been investigating high prices for more than a year, said they are “sickened by these actions.”
Turing did not immediately return a request for comment.
Friday is the deadline for Turing to provide a slew of information related to Daraprim, which treats a parasite and is used by AIDS patients with weakened immune systems who are susceptible to that kind of infection.
Cummings and Sanders asked Shkreli for a detailed list of the expenses and revenues related to Daraprim. That includes the total cost of manufacturing, marketing and advertising and purchasing of active pharmaceutical ingredients.
They also want Daraprim’s price in foreign countries and any restrictions on product distribution. It even asked for the identity of the company official responsible for setting the price of the drug.
The purpose behind the extensive request is to see exactly how Turing came to the decision to jack up the price of Daraprim by 5,000 percent.
Shkreli has said in interviews and on social media that profits from the high price is needed to fund a new treatment, but doctors have said that it isn’t needed.
