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Coronavirus: Groups want investigation of prescription price gouging

North Jersey – 5/19/20

A trio of advocacy organizations behind a state campaign for affordable drugs is calling on New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to investigate a San Francisco-based drug company after it tripled the price of a drug that could be used to treat coronavirus patients.

New Jersey Citizen Action, New Jersey Appleseed Public Interest Law Center and New Jersey Organizing Project on Tuesday asked Grewal’s office to investigate price gouging by Jaguar Health, a pharmaceutical company that produces the anti-diarrheal drug Mytesi.

Jaguar Health raised the price of Mytesi nearly threefold days after the federal Food and Drug Administration rejected the company’s request to expand use of the drug in COVID-19 patients.

“This is just the latest example of price gouging we’ve seen from pharmaceutical companies that put profits ahead of the needs of patients, even in the midst of a pandemic,” Maura Collinsgru, New Jersey Citizen Action health care program director, said in a statement. “It’s unconscionable that Jaguar Health takes these actions during a health crisis that has claimed the lives of nearly 100,000 Americans and left many millions struggling financially.”

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