Daraprim Price Hike

Marketing Ethics Case

Group 7
Group 7
 • Daraprim is a medication used for the treatment of
parasitic diseases and also other infectious diseases like
HIV/AIDS

• The drug is Included in the World Health Organisation's

What List of Essential Medication

• It can be used by pregnant women and patients with

is Daraprim? compromised immune systems

• Daraprim(Pyrimethamine) was discovered in 1952 and

has been in medical use since 1953

• Patients were advised to take 2-3 tablets of Daraprim a

day
 Daraprim Pricing
1953 2010 2015 Present

• Daraprim was sold at a price of • CorePharma acquired the • Turing Pharmaceuticals • The situation has not changed
$1, after it was made available rights to market and sell the acquired the rights to sell a lot in terms of the price of the
for sale drug Daraprim drug which still lists at $750

• The price of drug was raised to • Price was raised by 5000% to • Vyera, formerly Turing,
$13.50 $750 promised to provide the drug,
free for the uninsured, and at
$10 for the insured patients
with a co-pay
 Criticism Received
The Infectious Diseases Society of
America and the HIV Medicine
Association argued that the increase
was unjustifiable for patients that came
under the vulnerable populations and
would result in an unsustainable
healthcare system.
Doctors and healthcare experts
claimed that continuing with the drug
would be extremely expensive for
hospitals
Max Nisen, a healthcare analyst,
explained how Turing Pharmaceuticals
is trying to pursue techniques in which
old drugs are still being sold at
exorbitant prices because there is no
mechanism to compel drug companies
to bring them down.
 • Price increase to support the research and development was
important but not to the extent raised by Turing

• 5000% increase in price affected the terminally ill patients

directly as the drug became unsustainably expensive and many
of them used the drug indefinitely

Our
• The drug became difficult to keep in stock due to its high
cost for hospitals who started looking for alternative
therapies which had lower efficacy

Opinion
• The company could have gradually increased the prices up to a
reasonable point in order to make it sustainable for the target
audience rather than implementing a 5000% increase at once

• High price of such drugs often leads to a mandate for the

patients to switch their insurance plans to the ones which cover
expensive drugs and charge higher premium
 Fundraising for R&D Subscription Based Model

Recommendations Government Subsidies for

R&D
Inclusion in Medical
Insurance

More players in the

market - Competitive
Pricing