Drug company CEO to lower price of Daraprim after public outcry, news report says

The drug company CEO and former hedge fund manager who previously defended a 5,000 per cent price hike for an anti-parasitic drug did an apparent about-face after a public outcry Tuesday, telling ABC News he would dropthe price after all.

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Turing Pharmaceuticals heard the protests, MartinShkrelisaid, and the company has"agreedto lower the price ofDaraprim to a point that is more affordable,"ABCNews reported Tuesday evening.

The price ofDaraprim, a generic drug that has been around for decades and is used to treat a potentially deadly infection calledtoxoplasmosis, jumped from$13.50US per pill to $750per pill sincetheNew York City-based companyacquired the rights to the drug in August.

In an interview Mondaywith CBSNews,Shkrelisaid the drug had been "unprofitable at the former price, so any company selling it would be losing money."

ABC News reported after his apparent change of heart onTuesday,Shkrelidid not specify what the "more affordable"price of the drug would be, saying only that it would be less than $750 per pill and would "allow the company to make a profit, but a very small profit."

TheU.S.Centersfor Disease Controland Prevention'swebsitedescribestoxoplasmosisas aleading cause of death attributed tofood-borneillness in the U.S. People can carry the parasite without symptoms. But it can have severe consequences inwomen newly infected with the parasiteduring pregnancy, organ transplant recipients, those who have compromised immune systems from HIV and people with cancer.

Democratic presidential candidateHillary Clinton denounced Turing's price hike on Twitter Monday, and on Tuesday announced aproposal to place amonthly cap of $250 US on covered out-of-pocket prescription drug coststo help patients with chronic or serious health conditions. It wouldalso deny tax breaks for televised direct-to-consumer advertisingand require drug companies to invest in research and development if theyreceive taxpayers' support.

One of Clinton's competitors for the Democratic nomination, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, has been railing about high drug prices for about a year and recently reintroduced legislation to allow Medicaid to lower prices for some drugs and allow U.S. residents to buy cheaper drugs from Canada.

Infectious disease specialists, lawyers and patient advocacy groups expressed outrage about the price increase. Daraprim's overnight price hike is part of a trend in the pharmaceutical industry of small companies buying up old, off-patent drugs and increasing prices.

"In the context of complicated psychosocial circumstances, a lot of stigma and discrimination that our patients with HIV face on a daily basis, to add on top of that overwhelming financial hurdles is really, really troubling," said Dr.Darrell Tan of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.

Earlier this month, the Infectious Disease Society of America sent a letter to Turingsaying Daraprim, also known as pyrimethamine, is currently part of the recommended first-line treatment regimen for toxoplasmosisinHIV-infected patients.

Similarly,Turing Pharmaceuticals gave this message in a statement on its website.

"Some news reports have erroneously said that Daraprim is used to treat cancer and AIDS. It is not. To be clear, Daraprim is approved to treat toxoplasmosis, which affects people with compromised immune systems," Turing'sstatement said.

The statement alsojustifiedthe increase bysaying it hopes to improve the drug's formulation and develop new, better drugs to treat the infection.

"Our No. 1concern is ensuring that patients withtoxoplasmosishave efficient and affordable access toDaraprim,"Turing's statementsaid.

Matthew Herder, a professor of health law and policy atDalhousie University in Halifax,has been researching thepricing trend.

"At the time they make these pricing decisions, it's really not because they haveto recoup a lot of costs," Herder said. "It's frankly because they can get away with it. It's that there isn't any real control on the prices they can charge other than what the market will bear."

Another infectious disease drug, cycloserine, is a critical treatment fora rare and dangerous form of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. When another company bought the North American rights to the drug from a U.S. university and jacked up the price 5,000 per cent, drug policy experts raised similar alarm bells.