{"id":234473,"date":"2016-03-28T14:46:44","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T14:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/ten-huge-drug-rip-offs-and-big-pharmas-infuriating-campaign-to-keep-on-price-gouging\/"},"modified":"2016-03-28T22:26:22","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T22:26:22","slug":"ten-huge-drug-rip-offs-and-big-pharmas-infuriating-campaign-to-keep-on-price-gouging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/ten-huge-drug-rip-offs-and-big-pharmas-infuriating-campaign-to-keep-on-price-gouging\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Huge Drug Rip-Offs — and Big Pharma’s Infuriating Campaign to Keep on Price-Gouging"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"(Photo:(Photo: Kev-Shine<\/a>; Edited: LW \/ TO)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published by The Influence<\/a>, a news site that covers the full spectrum of human relationships with drugs. Follow The Influence on Facebook<\/a> or Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

When did you become aware of the obscene prices the pharmaceutical industry is charging for drugs? For many it was when a smirking Martin Shkreli, founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals, testified\u00a0on the Hill<\/a>\u00a0in February about his price hike of the antiparasitic drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750, after which he called lawmakers “imbeciles” in a tweeted goodbye.<\/p>\n

For others it was the roll-out of Gilead Sciences hepatitis C drug Sovaldi in 2014 at $84,000 for a 12-week\u00a0course<\/a>\u00a0of treatment.<\/p>\n

“Let’s hold our position whatever competitors do or whatever the headlines,” a Gilead executive said in an internal email, an impressive commitment to price-gouging in the face of public opprobrium. The Senate Finance Committee, in an understatement,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0the price did not reflect research and development but a “revenue” push.\u00a0Forbes\u00a0writer Avik Roy\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0the same hepatitis C treatment costs $900 a year in Egypt and that US taxpayers are picking up the tab since most US hepatitis C patients are uninsured, underinsured or imprisoned.<\/p>\n

Other shocking drug prices include:<\/p>\n