Experts Lounge

Changes in prices though inevitable, huge price changes and more so increments, could potent serious repercussions. This is more so when the commodity in question is life saving in nature such as drugs.

In the case of pharmaceuticals, companies explain that they set high prices to recoup investment in failed drugs, support future research and development efforts and pay for clinical trials to broaden the use of approved drugs. This argument has been advanced to support high pricing for novel branded products.

The recent price increases affecting old drug molecules in the US which is premised on different principles, continue to elicit debates, even among the 2016 Presidential election contest.

A look at a few products highlighted towards the end of this article would help explain the current disquiet in the US healthcare market.

In the recent past, huge price hikes have been noted on colchicine, daraprim( pyrimethamine), cycloserine and now adrenaline( epinephrine) injection.

This is not to claim that these are the only price increases witnessed by the US pharma industry, far from it.

We choose to highlight these cases for reason that they warrant a comment due to the interest and wide condemnation it has received and to stress the fact that these increments are exceptionally huge and abnormal.

Furthermore, the products in question are old molecules whose generic versions are widely available in many parts of the world, including developing countries such as Kenya.

Some of these molecules are used to manage conditions including orphaned( rare) diseases like Kalazaar which troubles Kenyans in the northern part of the country.

Daraprim( Pyrimethamine)

Daraprim an antibiotic, is a 62 years old drug and a standard of care for management of life threatening parasitic infection toxoplasmosis, which commonly affects AIDS patients. Daraprim’ s cost was Sh100($ 1) a tablet up to 2010 when Core Pharma acquired the rights to market and distribute in the US from GSK.

After acquisition, CorePharma reviewed the price upwards to Sh1,400($ 13.50) per tablet. In August 2015, Core Pharma sold the US rights of Daraprim to Turing Pharmaceuticals Ltd, which raised the price to a whopping Sh 75,000($ 750) a tablet, making the annual cost of treatment unaffordable, thereby denying access for many patients.

Cycloserine

Cycloserine, discovered in 1952, is part of a group of drugs used in the treatment of drug resistant TB called second-line agents.

It is used as part of treatment regimen, to treat Multi-Drug Resistant( MDR) TB. Cycloserine was acquired by Rodelis Therapeutics from Chao Center last year.

Shortly after this acquisition, Rodelis Therapeutics increased its price from Sh 50,000($ 500) to Sh1.08 million($ 10,800) for 30 tablets.

The resulting public backlash and criticism from the previous owner, Chao Center, forced Rodelis Therapeutics to return the ownership rights back to Chao Center, a non-profit organisation, who re- priced the drug downwards to Sh105,000($ 1,050) for 30 tablets, which is more than double the price it sold before.

November-December 2016 9