The drugmaker KV Pharmaceuticals has decided to drop the price of a pregnancy drug after public outcry. From ABC News:

Bowing to heavy pressure from the medical community and the Food and Drug Administration, KV Pharmaceuticals slashed the cost of its pricey drug to prevent premature births, Makena, today by half.

KV cut the price of a dose of Makena, its branded version of a progesterone shot that previously sold for $20 a pop, from $1,500 per dose to $690. The company also announced an expanded financial assistance program for obtaining the drug.

I assume KV Pharmaceuticals now wants a round of applause and a “good corporate citizen of the year” medal for this move. I guess they decided that their plan to charge pregnant women a 7,500% markup on a previously available drug was unreasonable, but a mere 3,450% markup is completely fair.

The fact that the drugmaker was even able to cut its price in half just proves what a horribly predatory action the first pricing scheme was.

This is, after all, a drug that KV Pharmaceuticals didn’t discover and didn’t determine how to produce, and the research proving it had medical value was paid for by the taxpayers. Yet KV was granted a seven-year monopoly by the FDA with zero control on how much they could charge.

The price cut is in response to the FDA taking the unusual step yesterday of allowing compound pharmacies to continue to make and sell the drug for the same low prices they have been charging for the past several years. I just hope this announced price reduction won’t cause the FDA to again reverse itself and begin forcing women to start paying this new still ridiculous markup.