There's now a $1 rival to Turing Pharmaceutical's $750 pill

(Image credit: Abid Katib/Getty Images)

published 23 October 2015

One San Diego biomedical company is going to the opposite extreme of Turing Pharmaceuticals, which announced last month it planned to raise the cost of a generic drug used to treat toxoplasmosis from $13.50 a pill to $750.

Imprimis Pharmaceuticals said it will compete against other manufacturers that sell generic drugs way above cost, and will offer a drug to combat toxoplasmosis for $1 a capsule. In August, Turing acquired Daraprim, the brand-name formulation of pyrimethamine. Imprimis' version combines pyrimethamine with leucovorin, a form of folic acid that helps cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. When explaining why Turing raised the price of Daraprim so drastically, Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli said the money would be used to fund research for new drugs (after a public outcry, the company said it would lower the cost).

Imprimis Pharmaceuticals CEO Mark L. Baum told The San Diego Union-Tribune Thursday that his company's response provides a market-based answer to prohibitive drug pricing. Imprimis uses ingredients that are FDA-approved and compounding operations that are FDA-inspected, but its formulations are not FDA-approved; filing for approval would take several years and cost millions, Baum said. Instead, the drugs are sold legally through doctor's prescriptions to specific patients. Imprimis is selling its compounded formulations of pyrimethamine and leucovorin for as low as $99 per bottle of 100 capsules, and Baum said that by not filing for FDA approval, the company can make a profit even when selling pills for less than $1 each. Imprimis has formed a division called Imprimis Cares, which will serve all 50 states with special formulations of high-priced generic drugs. "This is the tip of the iceberg," Baum said.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.