When a compound pharmacy trumpeted plans last month to sell a cheap version of Martin Shkreli’s pricey anti-infective drug, the move was greeted with cheers worthy of a World Series championship. This was hardly surprising. Shkreli’s Turing Pharmaceuticals boosted the price of its Daraprim drug to $750 from $13.55 less than a month after buying the decades-old, life-saving medicine from another drug maker. But then, Imprimis Pharmaceuticals announced plans to make a combination medicine containing the same active ingredient in Daraprim and charge just $99 for a bottle of 100 capsules, or about $1 each.
But whether this move will derail Shkreli’s plan to dominate the market is actually unclear. For the moment, there are two key questions. One is whether enough doctors will prescribe the low-cost, compounded alternative? Another unknown is whether the availability of this new product might somehow derail the potential for antitrust investigations into Shkreli’s company?