Pharma exec: 400% price hike is 'moral requirement'

Nirmal Mulye, founder and president of Nostrum Laboratories in Missouri, said that raising the price of a bottle of antibiotic nitrofurantoin from $474.75 to $2,932, is a "moral requirement," in an interview with the Financial Times. less Nirmal Mulye, founder and president of Nostrum Laboratories in Missouri, said that raising the price of a bottle of antibiotic nitrofurantoin from $474.75 to $2,932, is a "moral requirement," in an interview ... more Photo: TEK IMAGE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF Photo: TEK IMAGE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Pharma exec: 400% price hike is 'moral requirement' 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

A pharmaceutical company executive defended his decision to raise the price of an essential drug by 400 percent, proclaiming the price hike "a moral requirement to make money."

Nirmal Mulye, founder and president of Nostrum Laboratories in Missouri, spoke on the decision to raise the price of a bottle of antibiotic nitrofurantoin from $474.75 to $2,932, in an interview with the Financial Times released Tuesday. The drug treats bladder infections and is considered by the World Health Organization to be an "essential medicine" for a basic health-care system.

"I think it is a moral requirement to make money when you can ... to sell the product for the highest price," Mulye told the Financial Times.

If this all sounds familiar, you may be getting flashbacks to the moment when Martin Shkreli became part of the public consciousness as "Pharma Bro." Shkreli was famously publicly maligned in 2015 for his decision to raise the price of the drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 — per pill.

And it should come as no surprise that Mulye referenced and defended Shkreli's decision to raise the price of Daraprim, saying Shkreli was "within his rights because he had to reward his shareholders."

"If he's the only one selling it then he can make as much money as he can," Mulye said. "This is a capitalist economy and if you can't make money, you can't stay in business."

(Shkreli, it should be mentioned, is currently in prison for securities fraud unrelated to the Daraprim price increase.)

Mulye's further defense of his own company's price hike was to say it was in keeping with the market — competitor Casper Pharma raised its own prices on the same drug over the course of three years, eventually raising it to $2,800, according to Financial Times' reporting.

In Mulye's mind, his version of the drug "is still a saving" in comparison to Casper, whether "it is a big [savings] or not."

Unsurprisingly, the Federal Drug Administration was not a fan of Mulye's comments, and in tweets following the publishing of Mulye's interview, FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb wrote, "...there's no moral imperative to price gouge and take advantage of patients. FDA will continue to promote competition so speculators and those with no regard to public health consequences can't take advantage of patients who need medicine."

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Gottlieb affirmed that the drug in question was not in shortage, underlining the point that Nostrum's liquid version of the drug was not being actively marketed — a fact that was confirmed by Mulye in a follow-up, and the CEO stating that the price could change again, according to the market.

Mulye, in that follow-up, went on to call the FDA "incompetent and corrupt."

Read Dianne de Guzman's latest stories and send her news tips at ddeguzman@sfchronicle.com.

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