On Dec 9, a US Senate committee would investigate the 5,000 percent price hike made by Turing Pharmaceutical to $750 (AUD$1,042) from $10.50 (AUS $14.59) the price of Daraprim. The 62-year-old drug is a prescription medicine to treat a rare parasitic infection, toxoplasmosis, that mainly affect pregnant women, cancer and AIDS patients.

The hearing is in response to the 13.1 percent hike in prescription drug prices in 2014, the biggest jump since 2003, according to Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefits management company. The high cost of prescription drugs is an indicator of the industry running out of control, points out the Public Citizen’s Global Access to Medicines programme.

The Turing price jump, which caused a public uproar and led to the Congressional review of the price boost, made by Turing CEO Martin Skireli who justified the move because he claims the $10.50 prince is being sold at a loss, describes the sad fate that patients, who need to buy these life-saving drug, face. Cost of branded medicine have become so prohibitive and beyond the reach of people who lack health insurance policies.

On the opposite end, San Diego-based Imprimis Pharmaceutical, a compounding drug company, announced on Oct 31 that it would sell its version of Daraprim at $1 a pill. It is a customisable compounded formulation of pyrimethamine and leucovorin.

However, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association, points out the cheap alternative is not yet approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for recommended use but are prescribed to identified patients consistent with federal and state compounded drug formulation laws, notes Healio.

Mark Baum, Imprimis CEO, explains in a statement that coming up with the $1 alternative is its positive action “to address an opportunity to help a needy patient population.” He stresses that Imprimis respects Turing’s “right to charge patients and insurance companies whatever it believes is appropriate.”

The $1 price would not result in Imprimis taking a loss since the chemicals it uses to make the formulation are “quite inexpensive” which would still allow the firm to make “an ethical and reasonable profit” from it, Baum says.

Turing, following the public uproar, reduced the price of Daraprim. However, the lower price applied only to hospitals, while individuals would still be charged $750 a pill which Shkreli told CBS in September was a price that provided Turing a “reasonable but not excessive profit.”

Turing will also reduce the price of Daraprim for hospitals by up to 50 percent and plans to make smaller bottles by 2016 so the drug would be more affordable to stock. It would also offer sampler starter packs for free to doctors and patients with commercial insurance would pay not more than $10 as out-of-pocket expense for each prescription.

The FDA, meanwhile, withheld commenting on the Imprimis offer but said the regulatory agency is looking into the announcement.

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