Does this side of Martin Shkreli make you question the media coverage?

Evil is as evil does.

Nope. Shkreli is good at manipulating people and opinions.

If he really wanted to not be a POS, he would reduce the price to where it was before he bought the licensing.

Actions speak louder than words.

No. Maybe he is only a 99% shit instead of the 100% shit I thought he was before.

From what I understand, Shkreli has engaged in massive price gouging and, allegedly, securities fraud.

A United States Department of Justice press release said, “As alleged, Martin Shkreli engaged in multiple schemes to ensnare investors through a web of lies and deceit.” (Wikipedia)

At best he can be described as unethical. A video showing that he is able to be pleasant in conversation doesn’t challenge this.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/nintchdbpict000312780830.jpg?strip=all&w=960&quality=100

@cinnamonk I’m not trying to say that he’s not evil because he’s able to be pleasant in conversation. I’m questioning it because of the information the conversation reveals.

Did any of you see the part of the video where he says that the drug Daraprim they manufacture is used to treat toxoplasmosis, which is only active in a very small percentage of patients with AIDS (fact check: 20–30%). But that about 50% of the entire population is infected but has no symptoms. That basically its dormant and when your immune system takes a dump it attacks/destroys the brain. He goes on to say that the only drug to treat toxoplasmosis is Daraprim, which is 70 years old and (his words) “a terrible drug.” He specifies by stating that basically, it kills you as fast as it kills toxoplasmosis, and no one has improved the drug since the 1940’s. He then claims that the cost increase to Daraprim is subsidizing R&D on its 2016 update “TURO9.” Without the cost increase they couldn’t afford to create this new drug, which treats more people than the small percentage active in HIV patients.

There’s more, but that’s the gist of it…

“He then claims that the cost increase to Daraprim is subsidizing R&D on its 2016 update “TURO9.” Without the cost increase they couldn’t afford to create this new drug.”

I don’t buy that excuse at all. Nothing could justify raising the price of a drug used by AIDS and transplant patients by 5000% except unbridled greed.

If he was really concerned about funding his R&D he would have found another way to do it that didn’t involve fucking over a vulnerable portion of his customer base.

From what I’ve read, it sounds like pretty much everyone who needs the drug is getting it through various types of medicare programs for free. Even the HIV patient he’s talking to in this video says he went in to pay for his first round of medications before everything was all setup and it was going to be like $3600, the next time it was free.

His raisng the price of Daraprim is not in isolation. He has done it repeatedly as a busineess strategy.

From Wikipedia:

Shortly before Retrophin fired Shkreli, Retrophin raised the price of Thiola from $1.50 to $30 per pill; patients must take 10 to 15 pills a day.

Shkreli set a business strategy for Turing: to obtain licenses on out-of-patent medicines and reevaluate the pricing of each in pursuit of windfall profits for the new company, without the need to develop and bring its own drugs to market.

As markets for out-of-patent drugs are often small, and obtaining regulatory approval to manufacture a generic version is expensive, Turing calculated that with closed distribution for the product and no competition, it could set high prices.

He is clearly a psychopath.

No the jerkup was just too severe. I’m not at all shocked, and am damned sure he acquired the drug with that sole purpose in mind. The puzzle for me is in hisfailure to anticipate the reaction. I mean wtf? Did he suppose no one would notice?