MGMT 4020 MW 11:30
Professor Paul Gounaris
OUTCOME ASSESSMENT
Within the past few years, there is a growing concern about the price increases on drugs
that have been pillars in treatments. One case, which caused many specialists to protest, was the
drug price increase strategy used by Turing Pharmaceuticals. An overnight price increase was
applied to a 62-year-old drug that is the standard of care for treating a life threatening parasitic
infection (Pollack, page 1). The drug is called Daraprim. The price increased caused the cost of
Daraprim to dramatically rise from $13.50 a tablet to $750 a tablet. Mr. Shkreli, founder of
Turing Pharmaceuticals, stated that the company is not trying to gouge patients, it was trying to
stay in business (Davis). Shkreli also stated that "it is still one of the smallest pharmaceutical
products in the world and it really doesn't make sense to get any criticism for this (Pollack, page
3).
The strategy of increasing the price of older drugs is very unethical for these reasons:
many of the drugs are primary to treatment, the higher price limits supply and who can receive it.
and there are little to no alternative drugs to use for treatment. Drugs like Daraprim, like
Cycloserine, and Doxycycline, are primary drugs to treatment. Patients are given a primary drug
for treatment with other complimentary drugs. With high price increases patients being treated
cannot receive treatment unless they are covered by their health insurance. Let alone, hospitals
and pharmacies cannot afford to purchase these drugs at such a high price. So, pharmacies and
hospital run out of the drug faster or do not have them at all.
Turing's decision to implement price increases on pharmaceutical drugs has a major
impact on society. It affects hospitals and pharmacies have a limited supply of drugs because
they can only afford to buy a certain amount. Or they face having no supply at all because that
they can't afford to buy the quantity needed at the increased price. It citizens because even if they
are covered by their health insurance, depending on how high costing the drug is, patients may
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be asked to pay a hefty copay or out of pocket pays. For patients who do no have insurance or
aren't covered by their insurance cannot receive the necessary treatment they need. Typically,
these drugs have alternatives or generic drugs that typically do the same as the primary drugs at a
cheaper cost. However, for many of the older drugs, there are few alternative drugs and there is
not enough data to support its efficiency in treatment.
Knowing that the strategy strongly effects my company's ability to be both profitable and
ethical, I would use check sheets and controls to determine if I am using the best strategy
possible. The check sheet is a form used to collect data in real time at the location where the data
is generated (Thompson). The data it contains can be quantitative or qualitative. This can
management