Cost of AIDS pills hiked overnight by 5,000%, tablet worth $13.50 now priced at $750

New York: A hedge fund trader is at the centre of a row after the pharma company he bought raised the cost of a life-saving treatment for people with AIDS and weakened immune systems from $13.50 per pill to $750 overnight. The 5,000% increase was enacted last month for Daraprim.

The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Daraprim is used for treating toxoplasmosis — an opportunistic parasitic infection that can cause serious or even life-threatening problems in babies and for people with compromised immune systems like AIDS patients and certain cancer patients.