This letter considers a distributed utility maximization power control scheme in uplink DS-CDMA systems. Maximizing a utility function is solved by Lagrangian dual decomposition, where the Lagrangian multiplier can be considered as a resource price charging to users. By adjusting the price in a distributed fashion, the proposed algorithm results in a bang-bang type power control, 'maximum power transmission' or 'shutdown'. Numerical result shows that the proposed algorithm achieves around 95% of the optimal utility maximization with a modest computational burden.