Drug­mak­er re­thinks its de­ci­sion to dou­ble price of a gener­ic af­ter Trump calls it a coro­n­avirus life­saver — re­ports

Af­ter Pres­i­dent Trump on Thurs­day im­plied a decades-old malar­ia drug was sanc­tioned by the FDA to fight the new coro­n­avirus, re­ports emerged that late last year the drug’s mak­er dou­bled the price of the com­pound, but has now re­stored the orig­i­nal price tag as the virus en­velops much of the globe.

Made by New Jer­sey-based Ris­ing Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals — the drug, called chloro­quine phos­phate — saw a hike of rough­ly 98% to $7.66 for a 250 mg tablet, STAT and the Fi­nan­cial Times re­port­ed, cit­ing da­ta from re­search and pub­lish­ing firm El­se­vi­er.

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