In a disturbing tale that exemplifies the fact that corporations do not act in the best interest of the people, a drug corporation has bought the rights to an AIDS and cancer medication and hiked the price up by 5000%.
Daraprim is a drug designed to treat cancer and AIDS by fighting Toxoplasmosis, a common food-borne illness that easily affects people with immune systems affected by AIDS or chemotherapy. The rights to Deraprim had been controlled by Impax Laboratories until they were recently purchased by Turing Pharmaceuticals of New York. Shortly after Turing Pharmaceuticals of New York purchased the rights to Daraprim, they increased the price of the drug from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill.
Judith Aberg, a spokesperson for the HIV Medicine Association said “This is a tremendous increase.” The sad reality is that even patients with insurance will have a hard time affording the medication. This is a toxic reality. We as the people, must stand up against this profit over people mindset that corporations are advocating for and living by.
In fact, according to the CDC about 60 million people may carry the Toxoplasma parasite.
I can not imagine the utter fear that must be in the hearts of individuals and family members of people who are at risk of the disease.
My honest question is “How can these corporate sleaze-bags sleep at night?” Corporations, whether it is Big Pharma buying this drug or Rupert Murdoch buying National Geographic, are trying to limit and price tag everything humans need and consume. If this doesn’t stop we are headed straight for a disastrous society that values profits over people. The most disheartening thing about this reality is that, once profits over people is truly obtained, people will die out.
Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons
