Pharma CEO raises price of AIDS medication to $750 a pill, responds to critics with Eminem quotes
Martin Shkreli, the hedge-fund-manager-turned-pharmaceutical-CEO, is in hot water after raising the price of the anti-parasite medication Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750 USD.
The medication is used to treat a food-borne illness called toxoplasmosis caused by a parasite that can severely affect those with compromised immune systems.
Turing, which Shkreli founded in February, bought the U.S marketing rights to the drug in August. Shkreli told Bloomberg TV he hiked up the prices because his company "need[ed] to turn a profit on the drug."
It's common practice for drug companies to set the prices for their new products. What puts Turing in the spotlight is that this is a vastly different price on a drug that's been around for six decades.
The New York Times reported the news on Sunday, bringing up criticism of the choice to raise the drug's price.
Shortly afterwards, Shkreli tweeted out a line of Eminem lyrics:
“This isn’t the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is us trying to stay in business,” Shkreli told the New York Times.
“It really doesn’t make sense to get any criticism for this.”
Shkreli, photographed above in a Brand New t-shirt whilst holding an adorable pet, is clearly perturbed by the fact that people object to the price hike at all.
After the price hike, Shkreli took to TV in an attempt to clarify the necessity of the 5,500 percent increase and voice his support of a profit-driven healthcare market.
