After Getting Shamed For 5000% Hike, ‘Most Hated Man In America’ Will Lower Drug Price

[Hissyspit]

Source: Think Progress

HEALTH
After Getting Shamed For 5000% Hike, ‘Most Hated Man In America’ Will Lower Drug Price
BY JUDD LEGUM SEP 22, 2015 7:59PM

Martin Shkreli, the controversial pharmaceutical CEO and former hedge fund manager, announced that he would reduce the price of the drug Daraprim to “a point that is more affordable.” Shkreli has been the subject of unrelenting criticism since he implemented a 5000% increase in the price of the drug — from $13.50 per pill to $750 — which is used to treat severe infections in AIDS patients and infants.

Shkreli, who talked to ABC News, declined to name the new price for the medicine, which has been on the market for 60 years. ABC described Shkreli as “the most hated man in America.”

While working at a company he founded called Retrophin, Shkreli had implemented a similar price hike on a kidney medicine. The Huffington Post reported that Shkeli “is part of a criminal investigation” involving Retrophin. He owes the company more than a half-million dollars.



Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/09/22/3704542/after-getting-shamed-for-5000-hike-most-hated-man-in-america-will-lower-drug-price/

[Ed Suspicious]

1. MSNBC is crediting in part the response by Hillary Clinton for the reversal. Completely

ignores Sanders/Cummings in their coverage. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/turing-roll-back-pricing-daraprim-amid-controversy

http://www.wsj.com/articles/bernie-sanders-to-introduce-bill-targeting-high-drug-prices-1441839693

http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/bernie-sanders-unveils-bill-battle-rising-drug-prices/2015-09-10

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-cummings-introduce-comprehensive-legislation-to-lower-soaring-drug-prices_---

[Spitfire of ATJ]

2. I would have LOVED to hear Romney defend it.

[7962]

14. I dont know with this guy, I saw him trashed on Fox Business as well

Stuart Varney's show had a few guests and all but ONE slammed him. Hating him is something we can ALL get behind!!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. Ever watch "Shark Tank"?

"Mr. Wonderful" would LOVE this guy.

[7962]

41. Haaaa!

[christx30]

17. I've seen some justification from other websites

I won't name. Some said questioned if it's the raw materials used to make the drug, are they available in sufficient quantities to be able to make the drug?
Others basically said "Isn't your life worth whatever cost it takes to save it?"

Both of these questions smelled of BS to me. It was $13.50 last week before the sale, with no one mentioning anything about a problem of supply.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

23. And it costs about a buck to make them.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

50. So 1350% profit isn't enough?

[Midnight Writer]

45. The justification we hear again and again is Research and Development costs

But this is is a drug that has been on the market for decades. No R&D needed here.

What really turns my stomach is the life-saving argument. "Since you will die without our product, we should be able to jack you up for whatever price we want."

May God have mercy on their souls.

[PatrickforO]

4. Of course they are! They'll totally ignore Bernie.

But we know, and once you know you can't go back.

[sunnystarr]

9. He wouldn't say what the new price will be ...

So I expect it to be lowered to $749.99

Trash ...
Vile ...
Fuck him ...

[Bubzer]

19. +10 billion

I can't stand ass-hats like this clown...

(Apologies to all the ass-hats and clowns for degrading you by making the association)

[ejbr]

24. Apology accepted

[PatrickforO]

3. This Shkreli is one of the foul, squirming, quivering,

bloated maggots you see when you lift up the rock of big pharma.

Disgusting. He needs to be up on criminal charges for putting profits above people.

[AnAzulTexas]

37. I don't think many people would be upset

at the idea of a big-pharma-pig firing line after all the shit that's been pulled by them all; for longer than I've been alive at that

[femmocrat]

5. Smarmy little creep. (I saw him on TV yesterday.)

To brazenly profit on the misery of sick people. Even $13.50 is expensive! Someone said the pill used to cost $1.00 each. May he rot in hell for that and the price-gouging of the pediatric kidney medicine.

[msongs]

6. by now it should be generic and anybody can manufacture it for any price they want nt

[jeff47]

16. It is, but this isn't the kind of thing you can just start pumping out.

It takes time to be able to start making it. Which means the profiteer has plenty of warning, and can slash his price so that you lose money. He already has his production line running, you have to make back the money you spent setting up yours.

[Ford_Prefect]

27. He is not the producer. He owns the brand name rights.

It can be produced as the generic form and name without his permission.
If a Doctor writes a script for his branded version they would then have to pay his price as the owner of that product name (and license?). But if the doctor also adds "or Generic" then anyone who can make the drug at all can produce it and sell at their own price. in this case there appears to be no difference between the branded from and the original drug formulation.

[jeff47]

28. And he's got a production line currently making it.

You don't.

You start setting up a production line to make it, because it's generic. To make back your costs, as well as make back the money you spent setting up the production line, you need to charge $20 per pill.

He's already paid for setting up his production line. He only needs $13.50 to turn a profit. So he slashes his price to $13.50.

You sell no pills, and lose a pile of money. Once you've been run out of business he raises his price again.

This has happened over and over again with generic drugs. Consolidation to a single manufacturer, and once no one else can easily start making the drug, the one remaining manufacturer jacks up the price because they can run any competitors out of business.

[Ford_Prefect]

31. to some extent this also depends on how many outfits are making it now, and in what form.

[jeff47]

33. Currently, 1. That's why he bought it. (nt)

[LanternWaste]

54. Other than the capital investments needed to create a new production line for a new product.

Other than the capital investments needed to create a new production line for a new product.

[Roland99]

7. Lower it by, what, $5?

[appalachiablue]

8. Bernie is a guest NOW on Chris Hayes, MSNBC and will be talking about this issue.

It will be good, Bernie has been addressing rip off US drug prices for years.

[4lbs]

10. Gee, what a guy! We were all wrong about him. He really does have a heart!

/* sarcasm */

[lonestarnot]

11. Too bad. Too late. Your still a fucking slithering maggot.

[7962]

12. His former company, Retrophin, tossed him as CEO & is suing him for 65 million.

he is the lowest of the low

[Warpy]

25. Good, he'll get a lot poorer while enriching a bunch of lawyers

unless he manages to pay them off, which I sincerely doubt.

He managed with the first drug because it was only little kiddies with a rare kidney condition who got hurt.

It's nice to see a sociopath get rapid comeuppance even if it is a bit late for the first batch of people his extortionate pricing hurt.

[secondvariety]

13. Former hedge fund manager.

Kind of sums it up...

[jeff47]

15. To $650/pill. (nt)

[Bonhomme Richard]

18. I'll bet he got an ear full from Big Pharm.

They do not want the kind of attention that he is drawing. Especially in an election year.

[PADemD]

22. My thought, as well.

[Bob Loblaw]

20. I smell

a future Republican presidential primary candidate.

[blackspade]

26. This guy is a murdering asshole.

A little hyperbolic on my part?
A little, but if one person dies because of his bullshit price hike he has blood on his hands as surely as if he pulled the trigger or thrust the blade.

[oldandhappy]

29. Thank you to each of you who took action.

Keep up the pressure. He has mentioned lowering the price, but nothing really has happened.

[Ford_Prefect]

30. I smell a rat too. He will say anything to get out of the spotlight this week. But,

when the dust finally settles I suspect the price will be substantially increased to at least 1/2 what he changed it to; on the order of $200 to $300 per pill.

I still say this guy should be very, very careful crossing the street and probably ought to hire a food taster. He's pissed off a whole lot of people who are not likely to feel particularly forgiving.

[cloudythescribbler]

32. If he tries to pull a stunt like that, his company should face eminent domain

=

[Le Taz Hot]

34. And good ole' "Hil" did it single-handedly.

Or so I'm told.

[SoapBox]

38. Ugh.

Isn't that line of crap amazing.

[tclambert]

35. We still need an investigation into how often this type of price gouging occurs.

How many other drugs has he raised prices on? How many other companies have raised prices outrageously just like he did? I know I've seen stories of at least three others.

A terrible thing about the free market is if you don't have competition, you can charge sick people an exorbitant amount for medicine. If the choice is pay it or die, a lot of people will pay it.

[questionseverything]

52. the real problem is no competition

the aca left us at the mercy of these drug companies

[passiveporcupine]

36. Nobody with a straight face can make that case!

Zinger!!! Go Bernie...but yeah, Clinton will get your accolades.

Instead of fighting for this like Bernie has, Clinton will try to make hay with this one case in the news now, pronouncing she is against it...but will she fight to change the whole system, or just use this one case to bolster her campaign?

[Lifelong Protester]

39. Nobody would quibble at making a fair profit

but 5000%??? That's not a fair profit. That's a "I want to drive a fancy car and be a rich schmuck" amount of profit.

And sorry, but he's such a smarmy looking douchebag.....

[Thekaspervote]

40. Daraprim 50 tablets $59 from Canada it's legal and you cheat big Pharma out of profits

[questionseverything]

53. isn't that illegal tho?

[TeamPooka]

42. gonna need to keep an eye on this scumbag. nt

[DisgustipatedinCA]

43. Neither Clinton nor Sanders should get credit for this one.

They both acted admirably, but the actual credit goes to Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and other social media. The users at these sites know this to be true, no matter what this reporter or that TV station claimed. They also know that they're lied to on a daily basis by these big media outlets. Neither candidate is going to get The Peoples' Credit for this. Everyone who knows how to power up a PC or a tablet knows better.

[jamzrockz]

44. This whole story stinks

How can you even try that level of price gouging with a drug not protected by patent. The same drug is probably made around the world by companies not belonging to him for less than what it takes him to produce said drug.

If he actually went ahead with his plan, then he would get a taste of the free market at work, facilities making other drugs would just retool and join him. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that he is doing this for publicity. Maybe he just wants to be the Kim Kardasian of CEOs.

[Lychee2]

46. "Most hated man in America."

Psychopaths always underestimate the downside.

[One_Life_To_Give]

47. The New face of the Robber Barons

[Oneironaut]

48. Too bad he still looks like a batman villain.

[Javaman]

49. please, Mr. money grubbing shit, what do you define as "affordable"? How about the old price jackass

Or give it away for free. you can afford it.

bastard.

[Enthusiast]

51. I wish people would just lighten up on Martin Shkreli! The man is a job creator!