A Tale Of Not Just Two Drugs...

(RTTNews) - If you have been following the biotechnology press over the past few days, you may have noticed that two medications - Isuprel and Nitropress - have been getting a lot of attention.

For readers who are new to the above two names and wondering what the controversy is all about, here's their tale that is actually true...

Isuprel and Nitropress are life-saving drugs that have been around for years, and for which there are said to be only few alternatives. Isuprel is used to treat heart blocks and cardiac arrest while Nitropress is used to treat high blood pressure and congestive heart failure.

In December of 2013, Marathon Pharmaceuticals LLC acquired the rights to sell Isuprel and Nitropress from Hospira, now part of Pfizer Inc. (PFE), the sole producer of the two drugs, following a 5-year supply agreement.

And here's what happened to the drugs' prices when they came under Marathon's fold. (Data sourced from Healthcare Supply Chain Association).

Agreed, the drug companies may have their own defense to justify their pricing decision. But a sudden price hike of over 350% for essential drugs is something unheard of, and all the more distressing. And aren't generic drugs supposed to be affordable?

This outrageous price hike caught the attention of the US Congress, and in October of 2014, a probe was initiated against Marathon. Or should we say the murky world of generic drug pricing across the nation was finally getting noticed. And so, it was not just Marathon that was pulled up for inflating the price of drugs.

Mylan, Teva, Actavis, Endo, Global Pharmaceuticals, Lannett, Heritage Pharmaceuticals and PAR Pharmaceutical are some of the other companies against whom the drug pricing probe, a first of its kind, was launched last year.

In preparation for rolling out new rare disease treatments, Marathon sold its portfolio of non-strategic products, including the pair of life-saving heart drugs, Isuprel and Nitropress, to Canadian drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (VRX, VRX.TO) in February of this year.

If Marathon had hiked the price of the pair of heart drugs by over 350%, Valeant has been even more hard-hearted. The table below will give an idea of how much the prices of the 2 drugs have been pushed up when Valeant took over them. (Data sourced from Citron Research report).

Valeant's price hike has drawn sharp criticism and the company is now facing federal probe relating to its pricing decisions, distribution of its drugs and patient assistance programs.

Although public outrage over the skyrocketing generic drug prices has been growing over the past few years, the tipping point came last month when the price of Daraprim, a drug that has been in the market for more than 6 decades, was increased by over 5,000% overnight.

Daraprim is an antibiotic approved by the FDA for the treatment of toxoplasmosis (infection caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii) and acute malaria. In August of this year, Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, led by Martin Shkreli, acquired the exclusive rights to market Daraprim in the U.S. from Impax Laboratories Inc.

Immediately after acquiring the rights to Daraprim, Shkreli raised the price of the drug from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill. With the media abuzz with this case of "outrageous price gouging", Martin Shkreli is now a house-hold name, personifying corporate greed. As a possible damage control measure, Turning Pharma issued a statement on October 13, 2015 announcing improvements in Daraprim accessibility and affordability.

This is how it reads, "For qualified patients with commercial insurance, Turing has established patient savings programs under which many patients' out-of-pocket expenses will not exceed $10 per prescription.

"For uninsured patients who meet financial need criteria, Turing provides Daraprim with no out-of-pocket expense under the existing product patient assistance program". Isuprel, Nitropress and Daraprim are just a few of the many generic drugs which have seen a staggering price rise in a short span of time.

According to Todd Grover, a founding partner with Glass Box Analytics, who analyzed the prices of 4,421 generic drug groups from November 2013 to November 2014, 222 drug groups experienced more than a 100% increase in price while 17 drug groups saw their price jump over 1,000%.

The companies may hike their drugs' prices due to various factors like shortage of raw materials, problems at manufacturing facilities, natural disasters or reduced competition due to consolidation. But, be that it may, price gouging should never be a company's strategy to boost profitability.

In the U.S., manufacturers of pharmaceutical drugs have the rights to set their own prices for the drugs they develop. But isn't it also true that one's rights end where another's begin?

Going by that standard, patients also have the right to have easy and affordable access to life-saving medications. So, is it not the responsibility of the pharma companies to ensure that their business strategy doesn't stand in the way of protecting the patients' rights?

After all, one's overall health will depend not only on the medical well-being but on the financial well-being as well.