Prescription drug manager Express Scripts Holding Co. plans to make it easier for patients to get a cheap alternative to Turing pharmaceuticals’ price-boosted drug, Daraprim.

Express Scripts, which manages prescription for tens of millions of Americans, will promote the use of the $1 per pill alternative to Turing’s $750 per pill drug, potentially sparing tens of thousands of dollars in treatment costs per patient. That cheap alternative is already being made and sold by Imprimis Pharmaceuticals in San Diego.

In a press release, Steve Miller, senior vice president and chief medical officer of Express Scripts, said that "leveraging our expertise to improve access and affordability to an important medication is the right thing to do..."

The move comes amid an intense uproar of anger towards Turing, which raised the cost of Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent in September. The company became the poster-child for pharmaceutical price gouging.

In October, Imprimis responded by announcing that it would make a cheap alternative, a compounded drug. That compounded drug includes Daraprim’s active ingredient, pyrimethamine, as well as leucovorin, which helps prevent side-effects. Both Daraprim and the compounded alternative treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that often strikes people with compromised immune systems, such as people with AIDS.

But getting compounded drugs to patients has always been tricky. Generally, compounded drugs are formulated medicines tailor-made for a specific patient. That means hospitals can’t just stock the compounded alternative, and prescription drug managers, such as Express Scripts, can’t order up the compounded drug if a doctor writes a prescription for Daraprim.

Instead with Express Scripts' promotion, physicians can write a prescription specifically for the compounded version and fax that prescription to Imprimis, which is now part of Express Scripts network. Express Scripts said it is working with the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association to get the word out about how to get patients the cheaper drug.

Despite the competition and public outcry, Turing announced last week that it will not reduce the price of Daraprim. Instead Turing will offer discounts to hospitals and patients.