Former hedge-fund manager Martin Shkreli is coming under fire after Andrew Pollack published an unflattering profile of his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, on Sunday.
The article hinged on the fact that Turing purchased Daraprim, used to treat life-threatening parasitic infections in pregnant women and immunocompromised individuals, and immediately raised the price of the drug from $13.50 per dosage to $750. Shkreli claimed that the drug is used so infrequently that it would have minimal impact on the health care system.
“This isn’t the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is us trying to stay in business,” he said, adding that most individuals on the drug are receiving doses for short periods of time, and that the new price better reflects the rarity with which it is prescribed.
“This is still one of the smallest pharmaceutical products in the world,” he said. “It really doesn’t make sense to get any criticism for this.”
Needless to say, not only does it make perfect sense for him to be receiving criticism “for this,” he’s getting quite a bit of it:
Martin Shkreli deserves a special place in hell. Like, holy shit. I want him invited to every AIDS related funeral.
— Gwen’s Deaf Auntie (@Devinitely1) September 21, 2015
Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight http://t.co/z6hCcAEegS Martin Shkreli–you're about to become a campaign issue. Please.
— Jonathan Alter (@jonathanalter) September 21, 2015
No such thing as bad publicity? Maybe, but this is not going to end well for Shkreli and Turing. Or the rest of us. http://t.co/RRWreEwMYl
— Michael Gilman (@michael_gilman) September 20, 2015
His League of Legends teammates, however, remain supportive:
Team Imagine Chairman Martin Shkreli takes flak for hiking drug price. #LeagueOfLegends #NALCS #Esports #Daraprim https://t.co/OtnqLNTSBm
— Thiemo Bräutigam (@herrbraeutigam) September 21, 2015
They no doubt approve of his favorite method of dealing with criticism — quoting rappers:
i am not the one to fuck with #wutang
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) August 17, 2015
$VTL twitter fingers turn into trigger fingers
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) August 13, 2015
At least he’s generous — or at least, boasts on Twitter about being generous — to the “scientists” whose life’s work he profits off of:
If you are a world class microbiologist or parasitologist you should be working at Turing. We actually respect scientists here.
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) August 10, 2015
We pay scientists 1-2% royalties. If you make a $1b drug, you deserve $10-$20m/y for 10 years. Most CEOs are too jealous to let that happen.
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) August 10, 2015
Watch Shkreli speak to Bloomberg Business about the reaction to his decision below.
