Martin Shkreli, former hedge-fund manager and founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals is not a popular fellow these days. Shkreli purchased Turing at the beginning of the year along with the rights to Daraprim, a drug that treats a rare but severe infection afflicting HIV/AIDS and cancer patients and was approved decades before Shkreli was born.
Recently Shkreli announced a price change for the drug – from $13.70 per pill to $750 per pill. Yep, you got that right. The announcement was not well received by any means. Initially, Shkreli responded to people’s disbelief with a flippant attitude. Basically letting them know he was raising the price because he could, and the profits would be funneled to shareholders and research-development efforts for improvements and other drugs. The industry has hidden behind such tactics a lot in the last several years, but usually relating to newer drugs they develop, so their comments can hide behind the cost of developing a drug and getting it to market. For Daraprim, that is not the case. [caption id="attachment_69521" align="alignleft" width="256"]
Alan Ripp, Ripp Media[/caption]
