NEW YORK CITY — It’s no secret big pharma is greedy and douchey, but Turing Pharmaceuticals — founded by 32-year-old Martin Shkreli — is by far the greediest and douchiest after this little weasel jacked up the price of Daraprim, which costs about $1 to make, from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill.
Certain pharmaceutical companies have been using a relatively new strategy of acquiring old, neglected drugs and turning them into costly ‘specialty’ drugs. Daraprim treats toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be deadly in babies or people with weak immune systems like AIDS and cancer patients, or even pregnant mothers.
Turing Pharmaceuticals purchased the rights to the 62-year-old drug for $55 million from Impax Laboratories, Inc. and then jacked up the price by 5500%. After getting criticized all over social media, Shkreli attempted to defend the price gouging by saying profits will be used to educate doctors and develop better drugs for toxoplasmosis.
However, doctors say it isn’t needed in this case. But it’s obvious it’s all about the money for Shkreli. Unfortunately, with all the backlash Shkreli has received, he’s had to delete his OKCupid account. Maybe he should design a drug to make people actually like him.
