AP Photo Bernie Sanders questions drug price spike He demands an explanation for a leap from $13.50 per tablet to $750.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is calling on a drug company to justify a dramatic spike in the price of a 62-year-old drug that was reported Sunday.

One day before rival Hillary Clinton is set to propose a plan to rein in high costs for specialty drugs, Sanders in a letter to Turing Pharmaceuticals demanded an explanation for why the price of a drug used to treat dangerous parasitical infections leapt from $13.50 per tablet to $750 after the company acquired the drug from a competitor.


The price hike followed the sale of the drug, Daraprim, to Turing in August for $55 million, the New York Times reported.

“The enormous, overnight price increase for Daraprim is just the latest in a long list of skyrocketing price increases for certain critical medications,” wrote Sanders and Rep. Elijah Cummings, who are investigating sudden jumps in the costs of older, generic medicines.

Sanders was the first presidential candidate to propose a plan to combat high prescription drug costs, which recent polls have found to be Americans’ top health care priority, outranking Obamacare even among Republicans and independents.

Clinton will announce her own plan during a campaign event Tuesday. In a tweet Monday, Clinton referenced the controversy over Daraprim, saying “Price gouging like this in the specialty drug market is outrageous. Tomorrow I'll lay out a plan to take it on.”

A prominent biotech industry index on the New York Stock Exchange was down 3.7 percent Monday.