WATCH: Ex-Hedge Funder Who Hiked AIDS Pill by 5,500% Says Drug 'Still Underpriced'
|This interview is revolting.
Martin Shkreli, a 32-year-old venture capitalist, has been facing heavy criticism for his decision to hike the price of a pill that costs $1 to manufacture, to $750 per pill, overnight. In a recent interview with Bloomberg TV, Shkreli hinted that he may increase the price of the drug even more.
Daraprim, which is 62 years old, was acquired last month by Turing Pharmaceuticals — a startup founded by Shkreli — and has long been used to treat Toxoplasmosis, a disease caused by a common parasite that can cause blindness and brain infection for those with weakened immune systems. Along with serving as an effective AIDS pill, Daraprim also helps cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
Before its acquisition by Shkreli, a 30-pill bottle of Daraprim cost roughly $405. Now, that cost has skyrocketed to $22,500 for the same bottle — an overnight increase of 5500 percent. What was once a common treatment for millions of people will now cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per person. In a joint letter from the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association, the organizations called Turing's price hike "unjustifiable for the medically vulnerable patient population" and "unsustainable for the health care system."
Shkreli's example is just the latest of scandals in an industry plagued with greed. According to a recent investigation by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Valeant Pharmaceuticals increased the price of two heart drugs — Isuprel and Nitropress — by 525 percent and 212 percent the same day they were acquired. Antibiotic Doxycyclene from $20 per bottle to $1849 per bottle within a six-month period. The growing trend of rapid-fire acquisitions of life-saving drugs and immediate price gouging is sparking an outcry for an official government investigation.
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