We’ll admit it: We’ve shelled out plenty of dough for skin-care products before. But according to a new report by CNBC, one U.S. drug company is raising the price of a cream commonly used to treat skin conditions like acne and eczema to almost $10,000 (back in May 2015, it cost $241.50).
Yep, Novum Pharma just announced that they are hiking the price of a small tube of Aloquin by 128 percent. Per CNBC, the cost of Aloquin has risen a whopping 3,900 percent since Novum Pharma bought the treatment in May 2015. (The company has not yet made a statement as to why it has increased the price by so much.) Unfortunately, this is part of a larger trend. Earlier this year, pharma company Mylan came under major fire for upping the price of life-saving EpiPens 500 percent since 2007.
What makes it worse is that the product might not even work. According to the drug’s official label, it’s only “possibly effective,” which means that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration couldn’t find compelling clinical evidence that the ointment is safe and actually solves your skin issues as intended, CNBC reports.
Related: 8 adult acne treatments, ranked in order of effectiveness
The cream’s active ingredients don’t explain the insane price either. The first ingredient, iodoquinol, is a pretty cheap antibiotic that prevents fungal growth, and the second is a compound derived from your standard drugstore aloe vera, according to CNBC. For comparison, the generic version of Aloquin is only $30.
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Maybe it’s just us, but we have a hard time believing that clear skin is worth a $10,000 price tag. (Find out which $4 breakout-buster one woman swears by instead.)