Price of 40-year-old cancer drug hiked 1,400% by GREEDY new owners

[CousinIT]

WHY are healthcare costs SO high in the US? THIS. I believe this is illegal in many other countries (if not all of them). But it's LEGAL and sanctioned by our "free market" supporting "government" (who right now are really just whores for greedy corporations).

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cancer-drug-lomustine-price-hiked-1400-percent-by-new-owners/

Prices for a cancer drug called lomustine have skyrocketed nearly 1,400 percent since 2013, putting a potentially life-saving treatment out of reach for patients suffering from brain tumors and Hodgkin's lymphoma. Though the 40-year-old medication is no longer protected by patents, no generic version is available.

According to the Wall Street Journal, lomustine was sold by Bristol-Myers Squib for years under the brand name CeeNU at a price of about $50 a capsule for the highest dose. The drugmaker sold lomustine in 2013 to a little-known Miami startup called NextSource, which proceeded to hike lomustine's price nine times since. It now charges about $768 per pill for the medication.

According to an analysis done for the Journal by Truveen Health Analytics and Elsevier, NextSource this year raised prices for the drug, which it rebranded as Gleostine, by 12 percent in November following a 20 percent increase in August.

NextSource CEO Robert DiCrisci, told the Journal that the company sets its prices based on the costs it incurred in developing the medication and the benefits it provides patients. Like other drugmakers, the company provides discounts and financial assistance to those who can't afford its cost. A spokesperson for NextSource didn't respond to an email requesting comment for this story.

Henry S. Friedman, a professor of neurosurgery at Duke University School of Medicine, accused NextSource of "price-gouging" in an interview with the Journal, adding: "People are not going to be able to afford it, or they're going to pay a lot of money and have financial liability."

[ProfessorGAC]

1. I Looked Up These Charlatans

They are basically a group of about 8 financial predators who did this. No manufacturing, no R&D, no distribution network, no marketing and sales force.

Bloomberg Biz has them listed in the category of 1 to 10 employees.

Just some sharks looking to make a killing.

[CousinIT]

2. Not surprised. This should be flat illegal here in the US. But "free markets" (and zero regulation)

ensure it remains totally legal for robber barons to profit off of people's cancer, injuries, and illness. It's the epitome of what is wrong with our entire healthcare system. Remove (make illegal) the profit motives - make it single payer and it could be fixed.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. And These Robbers. . .

. . .aren't REALLY a biotech firm. They just play one on TV.

[Lucinda]

4. ...

[Lucinda]

5. KNR

[TheDebbieDee]

6. Regulation of the US Pharmaceutical Companies

Would stop this! We need to start NOW even before the Dems regain the majority in Congress - we must tell Dems that we need them to regulate these industries so that we, the people, are no longer victimized as consumers...