Infectious Disease Experts Protesting Dramatic Increase In Drug Price.

reported that “specialists in infectious disease are protesting a gigantic overnight increase in the price” of Daraprim (pyrimethamine), a drug used to treat protozoal infections. After the drug was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, “a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager,” Turing “immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.” The Times cites Daraprim of an increasingly common “business strategy of buying old neglected drugs and turning them into high-priced ‘specialty drugs.’” USA Today (9/19, Rushton) also reported. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2015/09/18/company-hikes-price-5000-drug-fights-complication-aids-cancer-daraprim/32563749/