How the anti-Turing is going to work

You may recall, back in 2018, when a bunch of philanthropies and hospitals got together with the goal of providing low-cost generics and thwarting any future Martin Shkrelis from profiting on off-patent drugs. But how, you might ask, would that work, exactly?

The idea behind Civica Rx, the resulting not-for-profit, is to crowd out would-be Turing Pharmaceuticals by solving the scarcity problem. Companies can raise prices on generic drugs like Daraprim because they’re in limited supply and their for-profit manufacturers can thwart competition.

Civica claims it can solve that through collective action, recruiting a critical mass of hospitals ordering generic drugs. Civica will lock in prices, assuring against surprise charges, and the hospitals will commit to buying products in volume, stabilizing the market in the process, according to the not-for-profit.

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