Cheap Anti-Malaria drug Daraprim in #Nigeria Still Being Sold at High Price Weeks After CEO Vowed Price Cut #HNNHealth

Why is Daraprim expensive in America? It cost pennies here. We all used it as children for Malaria! As a Pharmacist trained in the US, this is an outrage. Dates and Apples are expensive here just as Mangoes are a dollar each in America and pennies here. But this is a drug available here WITHOUT a prescription and also used to treat people with malaria.

A drug that became the focus of a controversy after a dramatic price hike last month has yet to be available at a lower price, according to a check of multiple pharmacies in the U.S. by ABC News.

The drug Daraprim is used to treat a parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis that most often occurs in those with compromised immune systems due to cancer treatments or HIV infection. After the drug was bought by Turing Pharmaceuticals, the price skyrocketed from $18 a pill to $750.

After an outpouring of criticism over the price hike, the CEO of Turning Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli, told ABC News on Sept. 22 that the company would lower the price but did not give an indication of how much the price would drop or when. Today, pharmacies in New York, Phoenix and Las Vegas all reported that the current cash cost of the drug remained high.

All three pharmacies reported a cost between $888 and $906 dollars, with the extra cost beyond $750 attributed to different pharmacy fees. Turing Pharmaceuticals did not immediately respond to calls and email from ABC News asking for the current price and timeline for when the price would drop.

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