GMHC Blasts Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO, Will Hold Company to Promised Price Reductions

GMHC CEO Kelsey Louie issued the statement below in response to drug company Turing Pharmaceuticals' recent announcement that it would raise the price of Daraprim, a live-saving drug used to treat the infection toxoplasmosis, which can be fatal for people who have weakened immune systems, including AIDS patients and pregnant women, from $13.50 to $750 per tablet, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Statement from GMHC CEO Kelsey Louie:

Turing Pharmaceuticals and its CEO, Martin Shkreli should be ashamed of themselves for trying to make obscene profits off of life-saving drugs like Daraprim. Turing and Shkreli join the growing list of pharmaceutical companies and their CEOs willing to put greed before saving lives, and sadly they are not the first to have tried to do so on the backs of people living with HIV and AIDS. His promise to lower the price for Daraprim means nothing until there is action, and GMHC will make sure that Turing Pharmaceuticals follows through on its pledge to make this drug affordable for patients in need.

This sad episode reminds us of past injustices and raises larger questions. Too many of our essential, life-saving medicines are at risk of becoming out of reach for patients in the United States and around the world because of the greed and opportunism of companies like Turing Pharmaceuticals. It is critical that this situation be investigated to see if any laws were broken. Further, GMHC demands Congress create a better system for regulating prices so that the Martin Shkrelis of the world don't have the legal ability to prioritize profits over people's lives.