General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThat Guy Who Is Price-Gouging AIDS Patients Also Did It to Kids with Kidney Disease
By Jeremy Stahl
"THEY SEE ME ROLLING..."
Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) September 16, 2015
https://twitter.com/MartinShkreli/status/644222084651069440/photo/1
...
The former hedge fund manager whose pharmaceutical company has come under withering attack for allegations of egregious price-gouging on life-saving medication is the subject of a $65 million lawsuit by his former employer for alleged stock manipulationand it turns out he once tried a similar price hike scheme with that company. During Martin Shkreli's tenure as CEO of Retrophinthe company that is now suing himthe company increased prices on a decades-old kidney medication by about 20 times its original cost, a move similar to the controversial price increase by his new company reported by the New York Times on Sunday.
When Shkreli was CEO of Retrophin, the company purchased a kidney medication approved by the FDA in 1988 called Thiola and increased the cost from $1 per pill to $30 per pill. That drug treated cystinuria, a lifelong disease for which there is no known cure and which afflicts about 20,000 patients in the United States. Forbes health care contributor Steve Brozak described the disease last year when news of the price increase broke:
Patients are usually diagnosed with the disease at a very young age and have an abnormally high concentration of an amino acid called cystine present in their urine. The excess cystine crystallizes regularly into stones that painfully travel through the kidneys, ureters or bladder. Imagine having a kidney stone form or pass once a month, tearing through your organs as it tracks its way out of your body.
There was no alternative drug for cystinuria sufferers, Brozak reported, and the 20-fold hike raised the price to about between $54,750 to $109,500 per year. At the time, Brozak argued that Retrophin was turning patients into commodities like barrels of oil, while University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Associate Professor of Urology Benjamin Davies called it a case of predatory capitalism on the backs of the sick and silent. Writing for Science Transnational Medicine, pharmaceutical columnist Derek Lowe said the Thiola increase was the most unconscionable drug price hike I have yet seen.
Shkreli is currently going on business news programs arguing for the current price hike on Daraprim by saying that it is necessary for future research and development. Last year, Retrophin made the exact same argument in a http://www.retrophin.com/pdf/ThiolaInvestorCCPresentation.pdf" target="_blank">since-removed business presentation on its website to justify its price increase on Thiola, saying that it plans to develop a long-acting version of Thiola® for once daily dosing. (In a hilarious and perhaps not atypical legal notice about the anticipated development, timing, data readouts and therapeutic scope of programs in our clinical pipeline, the proposal warned these forward-looking statements may be accompanied by such words as anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, forecast, intend, may, plan, project, target, will and other words and terms of similar meaning. You should not place undue reliance on these statements.)
...
Read the rest here: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/09/22/martin_shkreli_price_gouging_the_hedge_fund_bro_pulled_drug_price_hike_scheme.html?wpsrc=sh_all_mob_tw_ru
napkinz
(17,199 posts)HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)CNBC Interviewer: Are you going to change the price?
Shkreli: No. (says with a smirk)
Catherina
(35,568 posts)Warpy
(111,339 posts)so that he looks like the monster he is.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)davekriss
(4,627 posts)Bloodsucking profiteering price-gouging son of a b will be working off his karma for his next two hundred lives!
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)He is one of the truly evil people. Like Cheney.
jmowreader
(50,562 posts)While Cheney is inarguably as evil as the day is long, I suspect he wouldn't do this.
passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)Cheney would do it in a heartbeat if he thought he could get away with it...but he's smart enough to know he can't.
This guy is getting killed on social media. I wonder how it's affecting him? I just hope it wipes that sick smirk off his face.
drmeow
(5,024 posts)say about them on social media - the only thing that has been shown to change sociopaths behavior is the threat of loss of money, power, or life.
geardaddy
(24,931 posts)Next to "Backpfeifengesicht"
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)I do so wish there was an equivalent in English.
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)thanks to fumesucker.
I know a few IRL an on DU I would apply the word to.
ryan_cats
(2,061 posts)That face is eminently punchable.
yardwork
(61,703 posts)These things must be done delicately....
Catherina
(35,568 posts)blm
(113,091 posts)/
artislife
(9,497 posts)BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)....somebody's child may be dying because of you. Very, very dangerous...in these times.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)If one of my kids couldn't afford that kidney drug, or toxoplasmosis drug because of what he did, well, I am sure there are a lot of parents that would agree with me that at least thinking of doing that person grave bodily harm would be a very regular occurrence.
I can't promise I would limit myself to thinking about it.
hamsterjill
(15,224 posts)While I won't be causing him any harm myself, I would hold no malice toward anyone who might if his actions were literally causing the death of someone's loved one.
He is a repulsive human being who has no earthly idea what it means to care about someone.
7962
(11,841 posts)Sometimes force is the only thing some people understand
passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)He will end up paying for his actions, and that is already happening in the social media. But it won't bother me a bit if he ends up with a life-threatening illness that he cannot afford the medication for.
That would be Karma.
3catwoman3
(24,043 posts)Leave out the human being part- he is repulsive says it all.
hamsterjill
(15,224 posts)Good suggestion!!!
Catherina
(35,568 posts)KansDem
(28,498 posts)Really, though...
somebody's child may be dying because of you
Might we see a desperate parent go into a drug store and demand the drug at gunpoint?
questionseverything
(9,659 posts)healthcare is one of them
the first thing the aca should of addressed is cost containment
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)instead we have health insurance that most can't afford and can't afford to use if we have it.
Johnny2X2X
(19,114 posts)This man deserves to be tried for crimes against humanity. He sees people suffering and potentially dying and he says to himself, "man if they would all just suffer a little more and die in greater numbers, then I can profit." That is someone who deserves to be tried in our justice system and face the death penalty if found guilty.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)drmeow
(5,024 posts)lpbk2713
(42,766 posts)Piss on him and the weasel he rode in on.
Rex
(65,616 posts)That smile, wow amazing what greed does to a person. Rot in hell.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)This is a collective problem, demanding collective action.
Abandon the practice of exclusivity and shorten patent terms.
By the time that's done, this asshole will have already made his literal killing.
7962
(11,841 posts)hes been sued MANY times. His old company is suing him right now for 65 million. Here is an article on him titled
"Big Pharma's biggest asshole"
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/21/martin-shkreli-is-big-pharma-s-biggest-asshole.html?source=socialflow&via=twitter_page&account=thedailybeast&medium=twitter
he needs his ass beat
lark
(23,155 posts)Also, a pox on humanity. The worst of the 1%ers. He makes Scrooge look kind. Wish there was something we could do?
MisterP
(23,730 posts)us to reverse everything and then further entrenching it, by your asshole uncle who bellyaches all day about the country's problems but doesn't want anything to be DONE to reverse them because a Black person might get some money
Auggie
(31,187 posts)but they won't be, of course.
Milliesmom
(493 posts)U.S. News
Price-gouging pharma bro under investigation for corporate looting, fraud and stalking
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/price-gouging-pharma-bro-under-investigation-for-corporate-looting-fraud-and-stalking/
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)He's not a "real criminal", unlike the cancer grannies currently serving 5-10 year mandatory minimums for being busted smoking a joint.
Milliesmom
(493 posts)What are they thinking? It's legal here in Washington State where I'm at, wish it were everywhere to help people like her. Has anyone started a petition for her?
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Enough said, right there.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)artislife
(9,497 posts)And this is why we have a problem with a certain candidate and family.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)?
d_legendary1
(2,586 posts)Dog eat dog and all that stuff.
Doremus
(7,261 posts)Bootstraps, self-responsibility lectures and zero caring or compassion.
I can only wish that he suffers the same fate that he's bestowed on his victims, many times over.
d_legendary1
(2,586 posts)I'm a big believer in Karma and God's wrath. How and when he gets his is up to the cosmos.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)unless you are in said family. Most dysfunctional families look like a loving, normal, caring family from the outside. Mine did.
But most sociopaths/psychopaths are born with the tendency. Even 'productive, law-abiding' sociopaths from actual 'healthy' families lack empathy and have to learn that it's in their best interests to treat people in a caring manner.
Turbineguy
(37,365 posts)Like him?
gregcrawford
(2,382 posts)... to call him a weasel. How about "Hagfish?" Yeah, that works.
I wouldn't be surprised if he jacked the price in hopes that he could rake in enough to pay all the legal bills he's going to have for some of his previous con jobs. He's got legions of victims screaming for his head on a pike. The boy is a walking, talking neon sign flashing SOCIOPATH!
He's gonna go down so hard, he'll be nothing but a grease spot in the dirt. Good riddance.
Initech
(100,102 posts)madamesilverspurs
(15,806 posts)instantly brought to mind Peter Lorre's mad doctor in Arsenic and Old Lace.
Not dissing Lorre, but it was kind of startling for a second or two.
.
MFM008
(19,818 posts)Peter Lorre yes, however it was in his first film 'M' about a child murderer. This guy gives me a major case of the creepies. I dont mean Peter Lorre either.....
3catwoman3
(24,043 posts)... Kevin Trudeau, who is always hawking some sort of miracle bullshit.
beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)Both criminals, only one is doing time.
alcina
(602 posts)He's like a very dangerous child in an almost-adult body. And everything is a game....
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-04-17/retrophins-martin-shkreli-the-biotech-short-seller-who-went-long
http://www.dailydot.com/esports/shkreli-challenger-inori-curryshotgg/
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts)maindawg
(1,151 posts)I saw him on CBS. He was smirking, he called his plan , Aultruistic' because , he said there needs to be more research ,'in my opinion' smirking. We all know that he is not in any way qualified to have an opinion on the topic. The Doctors say that drug works very well and that it does not even need to be improved upon. To go from 13 dollars to 750 dollars is not any kind of workable business model. It will not work.
Ins companies will refuse to pay it. They have thousands of lawyers and millions of pissed off customers. How does this kid think he can pull this off? Why try ? Maybe just to leverage himself a great negotiating position. He really thinking 100 bucks and when he 'settles ' for only 100 dollars a pill, everyone will be so glad to bend over and take their medicine.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)SwankyXomb
(2,030 posts)by a brief application of a guillotine.
REP
(21,691 posts)3catwoman3
(24,043 posts)He looks pre-pubertal, and acts like a spoiled brat.
Blue Owl
(50,498 posts)Avalux
(35,015 posts)The anti-fungal that started this is the ONLY drug that treats toxoplasmosis (a fungal infection); people with AIDs, cancer - anyone with a compromised immune system is susceptible to get it.
Mr. Smarmy Capitalist created a pharmaceutcal company - not to create drugs - but buy old drugs that are must haves, and jack up the prices.
He's the lowest form of human being there is; money above all else, including people's lives.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)I hope that he's going to forever be known as the greedy loser that destroyed private pharmaceutical companies and brought in national pharmacare in North America.
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)but he his a bloody fucking asshole who deserves to die for lack of treatment for the injuries he receives from a beating by someone whose loved one died for lack of an affordable treatment.
That goes for anyone who gouges the price of medical care. Here's looking at you GILEAD.
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,339 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Hassin Bin Sober
(26,339 posts)DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)Dick.
TBF
(32,090 posts)geek75
(102 posts)If something doesn't get done there will be thousands more like him.