How does that saying go, again? Oh yeah: 'karma's a bitch.'
CEO Martin Shkreli became the most hated man on the Internet last month when it was revealed that his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, had acquired the patent for a drug called Daraprim. The drug treats AIDS and cancer patients, but Shrekli increased its price from $13.50 to $750 per pill - making it basically unaffordable for ordinary people who needed it.
Now, it's been revealed that he's been undercut by another company, Imprimis Pharmaceuticals - which has begun selling its own low-cost alternative version of the drug, which uses the same active ingredients as Daraprim.
Although it hasn't yet been approved by the FDA and can only be prescribed by a doctor, Imprimis is selling it via its website for $99 for 100 pills. The equivalent price for the same amount of Daraprim via Shkreli's company would be $75,000 or €68,000. For one bottle.
CEO of Imprimis, Mark Baum, said that this was just the beginning.
"We are looking at all of these cases where the sole-source generic companies are jacking the price way up," he said. "There’ll be many more of these."
