{"id":99060,"date":"2015-09-22T11:27:20","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T09:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=99060"},"modified":"2015-09-23T08:25:55","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T06:25:55","slug":"why-this-is-the-most-despised-man-in-the-world-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/99060\/why-this-is-the-most-despised-man-in-the-world-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Why this is the most despised man in the world right now"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 32-year old CEO of a pharmaceutical group has been labelled ‘the most despised man in the world’ after increasing the price of a drug used to treat HIV-related diseases by over 5,500%.<\/p>\n

Martin Shkreli purchased the rights to the drug, Daraprim, in August for $55 million. Following the purchase, his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, increased the drug’s price from $13.50 per pill, to $750<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Reaction to the announcement has been swift and furious<\/a>, with medical professionals, politicians and industry experts calling the move “outrageous” and “unjustifiable”.<\/p>\n

Social media has erupted with disgust, following media reports quoting Shkreli as saying the move was because the company “needed to turn a profit” on the drug.<\/p>\n

Shkreli has defended the move on shows like CNBC and Bloomberg<\/a>, explaining the rationale behind the steep price hike.<\/p>\n

He said that while the cost to produce the drug is really cheap (around $1.00), distribution costs, research costs, and the cost of focused patient treatment projects would climb into multiple millions of dollars – while the drug only attracted revenue of around $5 million, previously.<\/p>\n

He accused media and other commentators of not seeing the bigger picture – that he was bringing the price in line with competitors, and that it would result in more buy-in and treatment development.<\/p>\n

However, his comments have not won many over.<\/p>\n

Shkreli defends the move:<\/h3>\n
\"Martin<\/a>

Martin Shkreli Tweet<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the first company that really focused on this product. And I think that\u2019s a great thing, because ultimately companies before us were actually just giving it away, almost,” he told Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe price that they were pricing it at, $13.50, you only needed less than 100 pills, so at the end of the day the price per course of treatment \u2014 to save your life \u2014 was only $1,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shkreli argued that profit-incentive drives development in drug and drug research, and that it will lead to an overall improvement in generics, which he welcomed.<\/p>\n

“We’re spending millions of dollars making a better version of Daraprim, a version that’s less toxic – Daraprim is very toxic – and trying to turn a fair profit.”<\/p>\n

When pushed on the fairness to patients, Shkreli said the company wasn’t anti-people.<\/p>\n

“Half of our drugs we give away for $1.00 – I think that shows our commitment to patients. And if you can’t afford the drug, we will give it away totally for free.”<\/p>\n

“It’s an impediment (to the goal of making a profit) but we will never deny someone treatment because they can’t pay…it’s something we will resolve with an insurer.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can see the full Bloomberg interview below<\/p>\n