In lucrative deal, infamous pharma company bails on drug it priced at $89K

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The pharmaceutical company that drew swift criticism last month for pricing an old, cheap drug at $89,000 per patient, per year has now sold the drug in a lucrative deal. The new owners say a price change is coming.

"Obviously we're re-examining the current price... We believe a change needs to be had, but... it's really too premature to speculate on the price level," Stuart Peltz, CEO of the new owner, PTC Therapeutics, Inc., said on a conference call to reporters.

PTC announced Thursday that it bought the drug, deflazacort (brand named Emflaza), from Marathon Pharmaceuticals LLC. Last month, Marathon announced that it had finally gotten deflazacort approved by the FDA to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare, severe type of muscular dystrophy that mostly affects boys.

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