DrugGoes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight (www.nytimes.com)

Daraprim, a 62-year-old drug used to treat the life-threatening parasitic infection, toxoplasmosis, experienced a dramatic price hike after being acquired by the start up Turing Pharmaceuticals, run by former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli. While Shkreli maintains that the cost hike will fund new research in treating toxoplasmosis and is now in line with the costs associated with treatment for other rare disease, physicians and members are not pushing for drug reformulation as the associated side effects of Daraprim can be easily managed. The price increase is in line with Shkreli’s developing reputation for questionable profit acquisition in the drug arena: in 2011, he started another company whose primary focus was acquiring old drugs and increasing their prices; prior to that, he worked to stall drug approvals made by companies whose stock he was short selling.

Shkreli is not alone in the business of, seemingly, questionable drug price hikes: this year alone, Cycloserine, a tuberculosis drug, and Isuprel and Nitropress, both heart drugs, experienced dramatic price increases after they were acquired by other drug companies. Even Daraprim’s price increased from $1 a tablet to $13.50 after it as acquired by CorePharma, prior to Turing’s acquisition this year.

Reuters.com: Kmart Pays $1.4 Million to Settle U.S. Charges Over Medicare Inducements

Kmart is accused of allowing Medicare beneficiaries to use manufacturer coupons to reduce pay and provide access to expensive brand medications instead of the preferred generic options, as well as offering gasoline discounts based on prescription volume. The practices violate the False Claims Act, which prohibits offering Medicare users benefits to influence pharmacy utilization, forcing the company to pay $1.4 million to the government to settle the suit.