Martin Shkreli walks back on pledge to lower price of HIV drug Daraprim

Controversial pharmaceutical boss Martin Shkreli has has decided he’s not going to lower the price of his HIV medication after all.

Shkreli’s company Turing Pharmaceuticals announced on Wednesday that it would provide volume discounts of its drug Daraprim to hospitals, but it appears that the company’s $750-a-pill price tag still stands.

Turing and Shkreli attracted a firestorm of criticism in September after it was revealed the company had raised the price of Daraprim, a 62-year-old treatment for parasitic infections, to $750 a pill from $13.50 after acquiring it. The medicine once sold for $1 a pill.

Shkreli pledged to lower the price of the drug in an interview shortly after being roundly pilloried by people including Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. But in a press release Nancy Retzlaff, Turing’s chief commercial officer, said: “Drug pricing is one of the most complex parts of the healthcare industry. A drug’s list price is not the primary factor in determining patient affordability and access. A reduction in Daraprim’s list price would not translate into a benefit for patients.”

Instead Turing will offer reductions of up to 50% to hospitals, introduce new, smaller bottles of 30 tablets and lower costs and offer free sample starter packages starting in early 2016.

The moves are unlikely to pacify Turing’s many critics. “This cost is unjustifiable for the medically vulnerable patient population in need of this medication and unsustainable for the healthcare system,” wrote the Infectious Diseases Society of America in an open letter to Turing when the price hike was announced in September.

Toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection, has been identified bythe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of five neglected parasitic diseases for which public health action is necessary. In addition to ravaging the compromised immune systems of patients with HIV, it is also very dangerous to pregnant women and can cause miscarriage and stillbirth. The disease is often caused by undercooking meat.