Cummings and Sanders Investigate “Overnight” Price Increase of Life-Saving Drug

Sep 21, 2015
Press Release

Cummings and Sanders Investigate “Overnight” Price Increase of Life-Saving Drug 

Washington, D.C. (Sept. 21, 2015)—As a part of their ongoing investigation into recent drug price increases, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Senator Bernie Sanders, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, sent a letter to Turing Pharmaceuticals, requesting information about escalating prices the company has been charging for a drug used to treat a life-threatening parasitic infection.  

“The enormous, overnight price increase for Daraprim is just the latest in a long list of skyrocketing price increases for certain critical medications,” Cummings and Sanders said. “Without fast access to this drug, used to treat a very serious parasitic infection, patients may experience organ failure, blindness or death. Americans should not have to live in fear that they will die or go bankrupt because they cannot afford to take the life-saving medication they need.”

In their letter today, Sanders and Cummings requested information about the dramatic price increase and restrictions on distribution for a 62-year-old drug Daraprim (pyrimethamine). “This dramatic price increase will have a direct impact on patients’ ability to purchase their needed medications,” they wrote. The dramatic price increase from $13.50 a tablet to $750 a tablet was reported in The New York Times yesterday.

The Members requested that Turing provide information by October 9, including total gross revenues from sales of this drug; prices paid for all sales of this drug; the prices of this drug in foreign markets; and the identity of company official(s) responsible for setting the price of this drug.

Click here to see the letter to Turing Pharmaceuticals.

114th Congress