Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli has bowed to public pressure and agreed to reverse the huge price increase of the life saving drug Daraprim. Shkreli sparked outrage after hiking the cost of the drug over 5,000 percent, from $13.50 to $750 per pill overnight. Turing bought Daraprim back in August for $55 million and is just one of the many pharmaceutical companies upping prices on neglected drugs to transform them into more specialized treatments. Daraprim has been in use for over 60 years to fight infection in patients whose immune system has been weakened by conditions such as malaria, HIV or cancer. Shkreli defended his actions this week saying that the mark up would be used to research better treatments. Turing has not yet confirmed what the new price of Daraprim will be but commented on his Twitter (TWTR) account that over the coming weeks the company would ‘set the record straight on misconceptions and announce some adjustments to our plan.’ Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called Turing’s actions ‘price gouging’ and has called for new regulation on drug pricing which would prevent patients paying over a certain amount out of pocket for medication each month.
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