Meet the Hedge Fund Guy Who Increased the Price of a Life-Saving Drug by 5500%
Healthy 32-year-old increases price from $13.50 to $750 per pill, insists it’s still “underpriced.”
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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCIMUn_WNz0&list=PLUgRTD1mpwSVBbjrMC4rZoEzkyvLQPeAg expand=1]
Here’s a nice bedtime story. I mean, bedtime nightmare, that’s more like it. So, there’s this guy, his name is Martin Shkreli and he is a former hedge fund manager. His latest entrepreneurial endeavor is a startup by the name of Turing Pharmaceuticals. The startup buys the rights to a 62-year-old drug called “Daraprim.” Now, this medicine helps those with weak immune systems, like people suffering from AIDS or the effects of chemotherapy, fight off a dangerous parasite that can cause brain infections and blindness. It’s also used both to treat and prevent malaria. As CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Martin decides to jack up the price of Daraprim so a bottle of the stuff, instead of costing around $400 (still seems expensive, right?) will now cost more than $22,000. Unreal.
In the above video, Shkreli defends his decision. You have to love his spurious argument that other important drugs cost even more. So, why not jack up the price of every medicine, right? Instead of finding a way to make life-saving treatments more affordable for those who need them, right? Not surprisingly, Marty has faced quite a bit of public backlash. Surprisingly, instead of realizing the error of his ways (ie trying to make as much money as possible off the terminally ill), Shkreli has taken to twitter to defend his decision in childish ways and, currently, retweeting those who agree with him.
One more interesting fact, Martin Shkreli is an anagram for “Real Thin Smirk.”
How appropriate.