US: Hillary Clinton demands regulators target drug maker

Hillary Clinton is urging federal regulators to go after an embattled pharma CEO who raised the price of a decades-old medication by 5,000 percent.

The Democratic front-runner wrote to the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission about the anti-parasite drug Daraprim, according to Reuters. The price of the generic drug rose from $13.50 to $750 after Turing Pharmaceuticals, led by 32-year-old former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli, acquired the drug in August.

Clinton said in the letters that Turing has not lowered the price of Daraprim, despite promises last month from Shkreli to do so, Reuters said. She wants the FDA to expedite any pending reviews of Daraprim generics so that they reach the market soon, and called for changes in law to ensure similar situations don’t happen again.

A big reason that Shkreli has been able to raise the price of Daraprim is that there is no other generic competition. The drug has been around for decades and only has a few thousand prescriptions. But if generic alternatives reach the market, they can sell Daraprim at a lower price.

Full content: Reuters

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