1,100% drug hike 'less than price of meal in London'
Aspen Pharmacare CEO: cover-up of soaring cancer medicine ’not immoral’
In the midst of Aspen Pharmacare's spectacular fall from grace after facing accusations of "price gouging" and hiding the subsequent fine from shareholders, co-founder and CEO Stephen Saad says the truth will emerge in the fullness of time. He says the company he started from "extremely humble beginnings" 20 years ago and built into one of the largest suppliers and manufacturers of branded and generic drugs in the world may have made mistakes but has done nothing immoral. "Globalisation is really not easy. We are a new multinational. We need to learn from each experience. If we learn properly, then these things are not repeated. But it doesn't go to morality and ethics." A front-page article in The Times of London accused Aspen of hiking the price of several cancer drugs to a level competition authorities regarded as exploitative, and then failing to disclose to shareholders that it received a €5.2-million (R75-million) fine for this last year. Saad occupied the moral high ground fo...
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