“Pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered,” the saying goes. And so may it prove to be true for the pharmaceutical industry.
Three articles, all published May 3, illustrate the greed and egregious pricing by certain drug companies that are gaining public recognition and scrutiny.
Marathon Pharmaceuticals LLC serves as a case in point. Over the last 15 years, its chairman and CEO Jeffrey Aronin generated a billion-dollar valuation for the company. As reported in a Wall Street Journal article, “Drug Price Revolt Prods a Pioneer to Cash Out,” he achieved this milestone not by inventing new drugs but, rather, by buying the rights to old ones, then raising the prices excessively with disregard for patients’ ability to pay.
