What plausible reason is there for this drug to have increased in price to such a bizarre degree? They’re just begging to lose their patent rights, imho, feeding right into the mindset of those who favor such a thing.
In the case at hand, the CEO is an ex-hedge fund manager who is grasping at a big return to pay back some of his furious hedge fund investors. He is also suing a company who fired him for $27 million in severance.
If I understand it correctly, and I may not, the drug in question was patented over sixty years ago and would seem ripe for generic at this price. But the company bypasses pharmacies and strictly controls distribution to hospitals which apparently makes it very difficult to reverse engineer a generic.
Hell, anybody who uses a steroidal product has seen ridiculous price increases also.
I was told by the Pharmacist that there have been a number of mergers and closings of generic manufacturers that caused it.
Patent is long expired. This is a genric drug. Anybody can make it, the only license required is FDA approval.