CEO Increases Drug Price to $750 a Pill

Shkreli told TV networks that his company has agreed to lower the price of the drug, Daraprim – but he didn’t specify what the new price would be.

“A sworn affidavit submitted by ex-Retrophin employee Timothy Pierotti to the Supreme Court of the State of New York and obtained by The Daily Beast alleges that Martin Shkreli engaged in a pattern of harassment against him and his family for nearly a year…”

“If there was a company that was selling an Aston Martin at the price of a bicycle, and we buy that company and we ask to charge Toyota prices, I don’t think that that should be a crime.” Shkreli explained what he did in a straightforward way. Even without shortages, prices have jumped tenfold or more for generics only made by one or two companies.

Shkreli’s start-up company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, acquired Daraprim in August.

Shkreli said on Twitter Tuesday afternoon that he planned to “set the record straight on misconceptions and announce some adjustments to our plan. He looks like a spoiled brat”, Trump said Wednesday.

Earlier today, Shkreli took his Twitter account private, and said he would be turning off Twitter.

Before he incited the ire of the Internet this week, he had already gained notoriety as a hedge-fund manager who wouldn’t hesitate to personally contact the Food and Drug Administration to weigh in on whether the agency should grant approval for a drug that he also happened to be short-selling – a term for betting that a stock would go down.

I’ve reached out to Shkreli for comment, and will update if I hear back. A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in 2012 requested a federal investigation into his short-selling activities.

His outspoken tweets were one of the reasons he was ousted as CEO of his prior company, Retrophin.

Shkreli says he has heard the outcry. It comes from eating undercooked meat or drinking contaminated water, and affects those with compromised immune systems, like AIDS and cancer patients.

It hiked the price overnight from $13.50 per pill to $750. He defended the decision by telling Bloomberg News that newer versions of the drug needed to be developed and his was the first company “to really focus on this product” for decades and that such research was extremely expensive. The increase drew protests in the medical community from those concerned that many patients will no longer be able to afford the drug. “Turing Pharmaceutical is not a member of PhRMA and we do not embrace either their recent actions or the conduct of their CEO”.