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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.”

 Gabriel Reilich
09.21.15

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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.

economy
Videos

The world is rallying around Tori, the Target employee Tweet-shamed by an irate cheapskate

via David Leavitt / Twitter

Anyone who has ever worked in retail knows that the worst thing about the job, right after the pay, are the unreasonable cheapskates who "want to talk to your manager" to get some money off an item.

They think that throwing a tantrum will save them a few bucks and don't care if they completely embarrass themselves in the process. Sometimes that involves belittling the poor employee who's just trying to get through their day with an ounce of dignity.

Twitter is rallying around a gal named Tori who works at a Target in Massachusetts after she was tweet-shamed by irate chapekate, journalist, and Twitter troll, David Leavitt.

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The cost of having a baby even with insurance equals average the monthly income of a woman

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Childbirth is the number one reason American women visit the hospital, and it ain't cheap. In fact, it's getting more and more expensive. A new study published in Health Affairs found that the cost of having a baby with employer-sponsored health insurance increased by almost 50% in the past seven years.

The study evaluated "trends in cost-sharing for maternity care for women with employer-based health insurance plans, before and after the Affordable Care Act," which was signed into law in 2010. The study looked at over 657,061 women enrolled in large employer-sponsored health insurance plans who delivered babies between 2008 and 2015, as these plans tend to cover more than plans purchased by small businesses or individuals.

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Scientists just found the crater of one of the biggest meteor crashes in Earth's history

www.nps.gov

A meteorite crashed into Earth nearly 800,000 years ago. The meteor was 1.2 miles wide, and the impact was so big, it covered 10% of the planet with debris. However, scientists haven't been able to find the impact site for over a century. That is, until now. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal believes the crash site has been located.

Tektites, which are essentially rocks that have been liquefied from the heat of the impact and then cooled to form glass, help scientists spot the original impact site of a meteor. Upon impact, melted material is thrown into the atmosphere, then falls back to the ground. Even if the original crater has disappeared due to erosion or is hidden by a shift in tectonic plates, tektites give the spot away. Tektites between 750,000 to 35.5 million years old have been found in every continent except Antarctica.

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