When Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of a drug called Daraprim from $13.50 per tablet to $750 per tablet, the issue of pricing power for life-saving drugs moved to the front burner for a while. Of course it didn’t stay there very long, but that changed again on Thursday when a generic drug company based in San Diego said it will produce an alternative to the $750 per pill Daraprim. That alternative costs $99 for a 100-pill bottle.

Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, the company responsible for the new generic, said it “has made available a customizable compounded formulation of pyrimethamine and leucovorin available for physicians to consider prescribing for their patients as a low cost alternative to Daraprim®.”

Daraprim is a treatment for a parasitic infection known as toxoplasmosis, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers a leading cause of death from food-borne illnesses. The parasite can be transmitted through contaminated food, water and kitchen utensils, as well as contact with infected cat feces. Millions of Americans carry the parasite with no symptoms, but it can become deadly for those with weakened immune systems, such as patients with HIV/AIDS, pregnant women and children.

Imprimis CEO Mark L. Baum said:

While we respect Turing’s right to charge patients and insurance companies whatever it believes is appropriate, there may be more cost-effective compounded options for medications, such as Daraprim, for patients, physicians, insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers to consider. This is not the first time a sole supply generic drug – especially one that has been approved for use as long as Daraprim – has had its price increased suddenly and to a level that may make it unaffordable.

Turing CEO Martin Shkreli defended his company’s pricing policy by claiming that a patient typically needs only 100 pills or fewer to complete the course of treatment. At $750 a pill, that translates to $75,000. However, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the annual cost to treat someone who weighs less than 60 kilograms is $336,000, rising to $634,500 for someone who weighs more. And that’s just for one of the two compounds in Daraprim.

ALSO READ: 4 Top Merrill Lynch Dividend-Paying Pharmaceutical Stocks to Buy Now

It’s worth noting that one of the two compounds in the drug, pyrimethamine, lost its patent protection in 1953 and that it can be used to treat malaria as well as toxoplasmosis. The drug was created by Nobel Prize-winning scientist Gertrude Elion.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.