9 Big Pharma rip-offs 'worse than Martin Shkreli' Published time: 9 Apr, 2016 20:32 Get short URL © Srdjan Zivulovic © Srdjan Zivulovic / Reuters 3091 While “America’s most hated man,” Martin Shkreli, may be the poster boy for Big Pharma gypping its patients, he’s not the only one to charge ridiculous prices for prescription drugs.
According to the World Health Organization, the global drug industry generates $300 billion a year with a whopping profit margin of about 30 percent, and turnover is expected to rise to $400 billion within three years.
However, it seems that drug makers are not content with their huge spoils, as they continue to jack up prices and do all they can to dodge taxes in an attempt to ratchet their profits up even higher.
This past week, a mere two days after the US Treasury Department issued new rules to prevent companies from moving overseas to avoid taxes, drug makers Pfizer and Allergan pulled the plug on their $160 billion merger that, before the new measure, would have allowed the new company to save $35 billion in taxes by moving its headquarters to Ireland.
A February survey of 3,000 brand name prescription drugs found that more than 60 had doubled in price between December 2014 and January 2016, while the cost of 20 drugs had gone up by four times.
Last fall under Shkreil’s direction, Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of Daraprim, a drug essential for HIV treatment, from $13.50 to $750 per pill in just over a month, but that is only one of many drugs for which pharmaceutical companies charge absurd prices.
As the Food and Drug Administration has granted an “expedited review” process for generic remedies in order to help tackle the rising costs of brand-named drugs, we take a look at some with the most exorbitant price tags, which many Americans simply can’t afford.
