‘Gaming the system’: FDA approves old drug with new price – more than 7,000 percent higher

‘A recently FDA-approved drug used in steroid treatments, which has been on the international market for years, will be introduced in the US at the inflated price of $89,000 a year.
In a Thursday press release, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval for a drug by Marathon Pharmaceuticals, a US company focused solely on the development of new treatments for rare diseases. They may now begin selling the corticosteroid drug Deflazacort, under the brand name Emflaza.
With FDA approval, Marathon now has exclusive rights to sell the drug in the US for the next seven years, even though it has been available as a generic in other countries.
With exclusive rights, the company can increase the price from the $1,200 average that families were importing the drug from overseas to $89,000, an increase of more than 7,000 percent.’
Read more: ‘Gaming the system’: FDA approves old drug with new price – more than 7,000 percent higher