Martin Shkreli announces turnaround on 5,000% price rise for drug

Turing increased price of Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750, but now says it will make it more affordable

Turing Pharmaceuticals, a small company that generated outrage by raising the cost of an old anti-infective drug by more than 5,000%, said it would roll back that increase to make sure it remains affordable.

Turing and its chief executive officer, Martin Shkreli, became the new face of the US drug pricing controversy this week, after the New York Times reported that the company had raised the price of Daraprim, a 62-year-old treatment for a dangerous parasitic infection, to $750 (488) a pill from $13.50 (8.79) after acquiring it. The medicine once sold for $1 a pill.