Monday, Sep 21, 2015 5:39 PM UTC
Twitter shreds drug profiteer for increasing cost of common treatment of parasitic infections by 5,455 percent
“It really doesn’t make sense to get any criticism for this," Martin Shkreli said, unaware that it really does
Topics: martin shkreli, Big Pharma, New York Times, andrew pollack, healthcare, Video, aol_on, Business News, News
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.
— devin aune (@devaun38) September 21, 2015
Turing Pharmaceuticals owner, 32 year old douch bag motherfucker Martin Shkreli needs to accept that his karma,… http://t.co/gB6jLHovnd
— Lisa Stoutmoose (@stoutmoose) September 21, 2015
BREAKING MY NO-SERIOUS-TWEETS RULE BECAUSE THE WORLD MUST KNOW WHAT WHAT AN AWFUL PIECE OF SHIT MARTIN SHKRELI IS. GOOGLE HIM. NEED NEW LAWS
— Jake Hyland (@AdjectiveNouns) 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
