Turing chief executive Martin Shkreli (shown here) has become an overnight villain after public interest organizations raised alarm over his company buying a long-used medicine, Daraprim, in the treatment of AIDS and immediately raised the price of $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill. When a reporter asked him to explain the increase for a drug that has been on the market for 62 years, Shkreli called him a “moron” and refused to answer the question. The company has now become a target in the presidential election as an example of how companies are still profiteering on these drugs.
Daraprim is used to address a food-borne illness called toxoplasmosis caused by a parasite that can severely affect those with compromised immune systems. Turing purchased the rights to the drug last month and hit AIDS patients with the immediate massive increase.
Judith Aberg, a spokesperson for the HIV Medicine Association, says that even with insurance, the increase would mean that patients could be forced to pay $150 per pill out of pocket.
Alberg’s group and the Infectious Diseases Society of America wrote in a joint letter to Turing declaring the price increase to be “unjustifiable for the medically vulnerable patient population” and “unsustainable for the health care system.”
Turing spokesman Craig Rothenberg has said the company will use the money to fun more research and marketing and education tools to raise awareness of the disease.
With a price increase of at least 4,100 percent, John Carroll, the editor of Fierce Biotech, asked Turing chief executive Martin Shkreli directly to explain the increase and Shkreli refused to explain and instead insulted him personally as “irrelevant” and someone who doesn’t “think logically. He also sent a helpful tweet that said “You are such a moron.”
After all, Turing’s webpage explains that “We are dedicated to helping patients” . . . at $750 pill.
Again, why would this author seem upset about this?! This is what the merchant’s document wanted! That Constitution you drool over was not intended protect my working class ancestors, but rather property owners, aristocrats, and those servile to the aforementioned groups. Indeed, the author has been dedicated to serving those in power for decades now (look at the way Madison is discussed, I hope people here know that he’s not alive)…. Congress is not an underdog or little guy. Actually, it’s the most powerful body in our Constitution. Lastly, one of your powerful bosses, Speaker Boehner, definitely agrees with this CEO (they probably hangout too).
The 5555% increase has triggered the call for government price controls. Now what could possible go wrong there?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/hillary-calls-rx-price-outrageous-183129066.html;_ylt=A86.J3d2agFWkR8AwRYnnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByNWU4cGh1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw–#
@Rick: Generics becoming available is not a given. As pharmaceuticals go, this is a very small market for a low priced drug, and developing a generic is not an inexpensive process. There is a testing process to “establish equivalance” that is fairly lengthy and expensive, and is typically only undergone for larger markets.
The company’s statement about six or twelve weeks of treatment being proper does not mathematically equate to a 5000% increase in price being reported incorrectly for fifty two weeks.
Here is a link to the lawsuit:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/arleneweintraub/2015/08/18/retrophin-sues-founder-martin-shkreli-for-65m-his-reply-preposterous/
Is this guy a monster or are all the facts yet to be known? On its face this seems to be a heartless effort to secure profits for his company but a jump in the ‘per pill” cost from $13.50 to $750 defies reason. Something has to be missing from this story. Perhaps this guy deserves to be vilified once all the facts come out but that is not the way this blog operates. JT tosses out some red meat and the Gruber crowd devour it.
This is from their website and I’m wondering if the reporting on this price increase isn’t purposely misleading for some other agenda:
“There also have been misleading reports about Daraprim’s cost. The pricing that has been reported is based on 52 weeks of treatment, a duration that is highly unlikely to occur. The median administration for Daraprim therapy is six and 12 weeks,”
If it has been on the market 62 years the patent is expired and generics will shortly be available.
Looks like last month he was sued for $65,000,000.00. I wonder if the lawsuit influenced his decision to raise the price of Daraprim.
I love it! Ninian w/ a non PC comment. Look out for the UK speech police.
Daraprim isn’t used in the treatment of AIDS. It’s an anti-protozoal drug used in the treatment of toxoplasmosis, malaria, and other protozoal infections. It’s on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed to maintain basic health, because toxoplasmosis affects many people in third world countries and can be fatal.
Of course capitalism needs some control. But, socialists want to control is out of existence. The devil is ALWAYS in the details.
Nope, we don’t want no gommerment messen with our rights, Nope.
His response to the question says it all.
What is the message? Capitalism is a great system that benefits all……
until…….
it is controlled by the American System
No it hasnt
Has my post been blocked? If so why?
Traditional Capitalism
You have two cows. Yous sell one in exchange for a bull. Your herd multiplies and the economy grows. Yu sell them and retire on the proceeds.
American Capitalism shows much more imagination and works along the following lines:
You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publically listed company using letters of credit opened at the bank by your brother-in law, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer, so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights for the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to the Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights of all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says that the company own eight cows with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public buys your bull…
Australian Capitalism
You have two cows. You sell one and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. You are surpised when the cow drops down dead.
French Capitalism
You have two cows and go on strike because you want three cows.
Japanese Capitalism
You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one tenth of the size of an orinardy cow and produce twenty times the amount of milk. You then create Cowmilkan software and market this globally.
German Capitalism
You have two cows and genetically engineer them to survive fr 100 years, to eat once a month and milk themselves.
British Capitalism
You have two cows. They are botth mad
Canadian Capitalism
You have two bilngual Moose. One wants independence and the other doesn’t. They make a fortune playing hockey.
Italian Capitalism
You have two cows but don’t know where they are. You break for lunch.
Russian Capitalisam
You have two cows and when you count them there are five cows. You count them again and you have 45 cows. You count them again and there are 12 cows. You open another bottle of vodka.
Swiss Capitalism
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you. You charge an outrageous fee for storing them.
Chinese Capitalism
You have two cows and 300 people milking them. You claim full employment and high bovine productivity.
America! Land of the Free. Home of the Braves. This guy from Milwaukee? When are you people going to embrace social medicine in all aspects. Obamacare is like a goat in a monkey outfit. Of course folks will respond and say that Canadians come here in droves to get their facelifts and whatnot because CanadaCare wont pay for it. So be it. Americans are “went in dumb, come out dumb too, hustlin round Atlanta in their alligator shoes..”
It is, by nature, the ‘right thing to do’ to steal when possible for many. Regardless of what one calls it, entrepreneurialism, capitalism, profiteering, etc., it is the basic tenet of free enterprise, ‘what the market will bear’. This is why we have government.
Health, safety, education, are social issues that affect us all collectively. The scum, like this CEO, will do what ever they want under what ever lies and arguments. They are supported by the perverse support of those who actually believe that everything is better without government control and/or regulation.
Some things are and some things aren’t. This guy is nothing more than a mutt that is eating the food left unprotected. Unfortunately, we are all paying the price because most of his profits will be coming through medicare and medicaid, paid for by our taxes.
The question to ask is why is the US the only country that allows this nonsense? What’s next?
This is what happens when greed and avarice runs the health care industry and individuals like the CEO of Turning are given medals and secular canonization for the money he makes.
I’ll bet this person doesn’t even pay the same taxes I do. His entire attitude seems to prove that the “best” CEOs are sociopaths.