Clinton requests US Regulators to combat Pharmaceutical Industry’s anticompetitive practices

Noticing the egregious actions of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has asked the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission to find out how they can market generic drugs more swiftly and end anticompetitive practices being adopted in pharmaceutical industry.

Turing Pharmaceuticals has increased the price of Daraprim meant for the treatment of a dangerous parasitic infection. The 62-year-old treatment’s price has been raised from $13.50 to $750 a tablet. This step of the company has attracted criticism from Clinton last month.

On the other hand, Turing Chief Executive Officer Martin Shkreli has promised to lower the drug’s prices, but has not disclosed how much the price will be reduced. In the letter to the FDA, Clinton said that Turing has not till now reduced the price of Daraprim.

Artificially increasing the price of a drug severely affects patients who are dependent on the drug, which is often used by people having compromised immune systems. Clinton mentioned in her letter that the FDA should speed up any pending review, ask applications for review for other generic alternatives to Daraprim.

The FDA has said that it will go through the letter. “I believe it would be a great service to the Congress and the Administration if the FTC would study and make recommendations on whether and how our laws might be amended to address this problem”, wrote Clinton in her letter.