Pharma-bro strikes again! 32-year-old price gouger Martin Shkreli has once again acquired the rights to an important lifesaving drug only to announce plans to increase the price astronomically.
Earlier this year, Shkreli became public enemy number one when he jacked up the price of Daraprim, a drug used by some HIV patients, from $13.50 to $750 per tablet. A major backlash ensued, and when the dust finally settled, Shkreli’s company reported a net loss of $14.6 million as a result of his greed.
Related: Five Fun Facts About Martin Shkreli And The Daraprim Drama
But apparently the professional douche bag didn’t learn his lesson because he just bought the rights to another drug and he plans on doing the exact same thing again but way, way worse.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Benznidazole is used to treat the potentially fatal parasitic infection Chagas disease. Currently, a two-month course of the medicine goes for about $50 to $100 in Latin America. Shkreli says he hopes to get FDA approval so he can sell the drug in the U.S. and he wants to charge patients $80,000 for it.
Yes, you read that correctly: $80,000.
Not $800. Not even $8,000. But $80,000. That’s nearly double the average annual salary of a public school teacher in the United States.
Related: Pharma-Bro Regrets Not Charging Even More For AIDS Drug, “I Could Have Raised It Higher”
Naturally, people within the medical community are furious over this news.
“It’s caused a lot of angst in the Chagas community,” Dr. Sheba Meymandi, the director of a Chagas treatment center told the New York Times. “Everyone’s in an uproar.”
Meymandi called the price increase “devastating,” adding that “the people with Chagas for the most part are poor” and many don’t have health insurance.
Dr. Bernard Pécoul, executive director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, called Shkreli’s scheme “an abuse of the system.”
It’s estimated that roughly 300,000 people in the United States suffer from the disease. Looks like many of them will continue suffering.
Related: Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Fakes Injury For Attention, Plan Backfires
Kris Bradley
What a total piece of crap.
James Evans
This guy need a 99% tax rate and then a bullet.
Martin Steele
Is he trying to get assassinated
Kevin Wiggins
Douche
Dustin Lipsey
I’m not saying SOMEONE SHOULD ASSASSINATE HIM. That’s irresponsible. It’s irresponsible for SOMEONE to say ASSASSINATE HIM.
Douglas Schlitz
He obviously has a tiny dick and is trying to compensate .
Piece of crap !
Chris Smith
please kick his azz he need it. bad
Shannon Petro
Karma has his name.
Erik Wadelin
He needs to be denied a lifesaving procedure..
Joseph Pasquino
this guy should experience nothing but pain, torement and disappointment for his entire life. he is satan himself
Will Glitzern
Dumbass of the Year
Jesse Erickson
I feel like he’s actively trying to make enemies.
Kevin Patrick
Biggest asshole currently living
Kimberlee Prather
How can this POS sleep at night? He’s taking advantage of people who need these meds, sometimes to live.
Eddie Webster
This is literally life and death. What do we do when the price of a life saving drug gets raised far beyond what any average person can possibly pay ? There must be some way for our Federal government (FDA?) to step in and stop this.
Anthony Duda
The government needs to somehow step in and put an end to Shkreli’s reign of terror against the people who need these drugs. The drugs have been off-patent for a very long time. He cannot use the excuse of having to recoup R&D costs on their development and, despite what he says, he has no intention of using profits to develop new medications. This is pure greed. I’m sure Congress, the Justice Department, the SEC and the FDA can find some law(s) to bring this guy to his knees, and the sooner, the better.
Barrie Goldleaf
Harlan Snyder
This guy needs his ass kicked!
Chris Etter
I heard he paid like $50 million for the company earlier this year, and now he’s buying ANOTHER drug? Where is this asshole getting all of this money? WHILE he’s losing millions?
Russell Murphy
It seems he has an ulterior motive. He certainly can’t expect to make money by pricing drugs out of anyone’s reach.
Chris Eaton
Where’s a gun toting lowlife when you need one?
Lonny Bradley Alois Regan
a bullet in his brain would help
Bobby French
This fucker is evil.
Chris Turk
can we just lock up this asshole already?
Nick Lamphier
What a pompous idiot
Justin Bowman
What is this guys damage?
Michael Jestila
prosecute him under crimes against humanity, RICO charges of racketeering and using laws protecting patented drugs to reap illegal profits, this man needs to be arrested and charged with depraved indifference, with illegal profiteering for prolonging pain and suffering and death..
RIGay
Announcement. Outrage. Lip service. Indifference. [Repeat] Announcement. Outrage. Lip service. Indifference. [Repeat]…
And so the cycle continues. What folks don’t seem to realize is that he’s just ONE douche bag amid a sea of less obvious and hidden douche bags. It’s called “Millennial Capitalism”, and this is the new breed; “In it for ME, f*ck you because I ain’t don’t nothing wrong except making a WHOPPING heap of cash off the sick, and their ain’t no laws stopping me!”
So… to break this cycle; how about taking back government? Vote, and not for self-centered or well-funded capitalists.
Chris Clark
Also can we stop calling him Pharma-bro? It’s just a little too endearing for this idiot. Am I alone on this?
Stephen Meeks
What goes around comes around…just wait for it
Christian Young-Koontz
The senate is supposed to summon him…
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/a73194878b6340e2985e61f40653024f/senate-panel-seeks-information-4-drug-companies
Raphael Marquez
If this is true he needs to be shot
John Malin
Maybe some people who’s loved ones need these drugs, should grab this turd, tie ropes around is limbs and drive off in four directions, rending and tearing his dimwitted little body to shreds. Please videotape it for viewing pleasure! (Is that too, too harsh?)
Vanessa Forbes
He’s cruising for a bruising. I wish some company would come out with a better and less expensive product to blow his ass out of the water. I hate to put this out into the universe, but I kind of hope his little empire crashes and burns.
SteveDenver
Single Payer may be coming to a nation near you sooner than you think.
Dennis Crowley
Asshole
Dave Stevenson
The Republican presidential candidates, a fairly evil bunch themselves, look at this guy and go, “Damn, dude!”
Christian l'Aviance
If he were black… They would be calling him pharma-thug… This guy is an asshole. Referring to him as bro is like saying that he’s cool to hang with.
Joe Haebler
And we talk about Muslim terrorists?
Jim Miller
This guy is scum..he has to be stopped !
Barry Shatswell
Isn’t there one Senator who is willing to step in and stop this pirate?
Dan Levin
and who is selling these drugs to him?
Giancarlo85
@RIGay: I think we need to restore many FDR regulations and perhaps go even further. Companies like his should be nationalized and taken over by the government.
Kenneth L. Kish
How is this asshole allowed to get away with this? Go to hell.
Errol Semple
That is Capitalism.
Sammie Edwards
It’s line-them-up-against-the-wall o’clock.
Brian JC Kneeland
oh boy! Now more people will die!
Tony Chaplinski
this better be fake.
Keven Ouellette
Never wished death on a human in my life but I hope he dies of a horrible painful death
Bryan Beard
Not this heartless bastard again, he needs to disappear…
Docter Landy
really? why not? Why Pharma dude? what about the rest of pharma charging america billions of dollars more than the rest of the world and holding us hostage by not allowing us to get our medication from canada……….Pharma dude is just the symptom and likely all this press is coming from a pissed off big pharma who doesn’t want to share……..
Gingerann Beach
I am praying his karma can’t be healed by pharma.
Justin Weeks
This just can’t be right how the hell is he getting away with this! Someone needs to put a stop to his evil tyranny!!!
Sean Carey
Someone needs to take care of Pharma Bro in a dark alley.
Nuru Aleksander
Where is a hit man when you need one…this is freaking outrageous
Robert Walsh
His middle name is SCUM!
Roxann Fraser
Jerk
Jonathon Popphan
How about when a drug comes “off patent,” the ownership of the patent automatically goes to the US government. Anyone wishing to produce the drug can do so and pay a license fee to Uncle Sam.
Jamie Rosenfield
This dude is as big of a terrorist as ISIS or any other terrorist organization.
Vivien Taupas
He should be judge for crime against humanity.
Alistair Wiseman
I see the Democratic Bernie Sanders supporter is back at it again.
Wilson W Wong
His cuntiness never stops.
Vince Bayard
Someone needs to “fix” that asshole
Jerry Green
There is a special place in hell for this douche bag.
Gary Hecklinger
Wow!!!
Eric Grich
PRICK!!!!
Bill Waxman
What a greedy animal
Tim Harbaugh
Seriously with this DB again…
Travis Burgan
Someone just needs to put a bullet in this dudes head
Bryguyf69
My work is partially in drug development yet I didn’t realize the mechanisms and abuses at work. The NY Times has a fascinating article on this, and his possible true agenda. Most experts agree that there is virtually no US market for this drug since only 8 acute cases of Chagas have been diagnosed since 1955. And it doesn’t seem that effective for chronic cases. What he may be doing is attempting to get a special voucher from the FDA for ignored diseases, and then sell the voucher to another company for a profit. It’s an abuse of the system. See article for details.
As an aside, the drug only cost $50-$100 for the 2 month course of treatment in Latin America. Someone just needs to find a way to import the drug “for personal use.” Generally speaking, government agencies will turn a blind eye for relatively harmless drugs like this. Heck, thousands of senior citizens are regularly going to Canada just to buy meds at discount rates. BTW, the Argentinean company, Elea, has has also filed with the FDA to sell this drug in the US. If they beat Shkreli, let’s hope they’re not similarly douchey.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/12/business/martin-shkrelis-latest-plan-to-sharply-raise-drug-price-prompts-outcry.html?_r=0
Bryguyf69
The Senate just got closer to figuring out how to stop people like Martin Shkreli, aka ‘Mr. Wu-Tang,’ from hiking drug prices
http://www.businessinsider.com/senate-aging-committee-on-drug-hikes-2015-12
John Andrew K. Carver
This idiot is a prime example of what is wrong with this country. Isn’t greed one of the seven deadly sins? GREED will be the downfall of this country.
John Wadsworth
Castrate the bastard.
youarekiddingme
This is typical republican deregulation. They want no FDA or FTC Regulations to stop the gouging by pharmaceutical companies on the public. Elizabeth Warren fights for banking regulations and the fuckin republicans go NUTS! We’re in worse shape now then we were in 2008 when the economy almost totally collapsed.
This is just ONE guy. Several pharmaceutical companies do the same thing every year…and it’s legal!
NO REGULATIONS…WE DON’T NEED THEM!! (That’s the republican chant!)
Doug Lia
Bastard.
Kevin J Desmond
I hope somebody blows his head off … that trash has no fucken right to live !!!!
David Scrivens
Just a spoiled rich smart ass punk who doesn’t give one damn who he hurts. Remember punk, what goes around, comes around.
Royce Earnest Rasmussen
Can we feed him to some wild boars already?
Joshua Carlisle
All the crazy people running around shooting innocent people and they can’t send one little bullet his way? Just saying. Put him out of our misery already.
Travis Cooper
Somebody just make this asshole disappear forever, nobody will search, nobody will care, everyone will be better off.
Lindy-Lou Nicholson
Well he is a right cunt isn’t he? (No other word for it)
Rosalynn D'Angela
this guy need a piece of lead inserted between his eyes
Gus Anderson
Mark Pointon
What a Cunt.
Joshua Decker
i hope he ends up out of a job. -_-
Mauricio Colmenares
He needs to be stoppedâ?¦ that’s a crime.
Tony Rizzi
Wait’ll he needs cancer drugs for his asshole’
SFHandyman
Shouldn’t we focus on fixing the system that automatically pays those prices? The one that makes tens of millions of dollars for their executives and churns out huge profits from illness and injury to enrich their stockholders? If we went to a non-profit, single payer, health delivery system, we could cut these assholes out of the system.
James R Holmes
This guy needs to die!
Frank Nusdeu
If he gets to do this, hopefully Karma is listening and he ends up needing the drug, but it doesnt help him! Now that would be a real payback for an asshole like this!
Stan Reeves
no someone just needs to shoot this douche
Jordan Lee
When will the US government step in and stop this??? Put the health and well-being of your people first!!!
Timothy Kender.
Why is this guy still alive? Isn’t this nothing more than legalized domestic terrorism through capitalism? Nauseating!
NoCagada
“…the price of Daraprim, a drug used by some HIV patients…”
The drug is not exclusively used by HIV patients. There many other diseases causing immunodeficiency where the drug is used to treat toxoplasmosis
Bryguyf69
@NoCagada wrote: “The drug is not exclusively used by HIV patients.”
While that’s true, it’s the reason the story is reported in Queerty. If the story was only about the current medication, Benznidazole, it would have no reason to be on this site.
woodin
The guy is a bad seed. Just goes to show you that some people shouldn’t procreate…like his parents. Defective genes creates defective people.
Kevin Waldron
UnLike! Every Time I See/Hear This Douchebag I Feel Apathy and Loss!
Dust This Shite To Dustbin of History!
Jeff Eiselman
Scumbag.
Joshua Moomey
Can someone just kill this guy already?
Joey Boyd
He and those like him just need to die. Some terminally ill patients should just blow their greedy fucking faces off…
Joseph T.D. Anaya
This man is not the problem, the entire system that allows companies to do this needs to go, I understand having an incentive but this is legal murder.
Alex Rothwell
This should be illegal. Help ! This guy is dangerous.
1EqualityUSA
Woodin, “Bad seed Pharmaceuticals” may I help you?
I want the ugly pictures of Shkreli-mushroom, not these impish ones. Where are the stock photos of him looking grim or having thick nostrils, or looking as though he has the pallor of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Low Gehrig’s disease). The least they could do is name a vile disease after him. With everyone thinking so negatively about him, it’s as though prayers are leeching out into the universe. If a debilitating disease were named after him, what would it be, Shkreliodystrophy?
Rick Rosio
time for a public horsewhipping
grayshade69
This is the type of SELFISH money hungry that I PRAY get a disease that one of those pills helps with 3 days after they ban the drug. For sure he is screwing himself like an earthworm. I wish the selfish bitch would just die already. The Government better be cchecking his books. This bitch is just the Devil reborn. PURE EVIL.!!
parrjj03
The dude was just arrested. I’m sure queerty will report on it in a few days
1EqualityUSA
soap-on-a-rope would be an appropriate stocking stuffer for the lad. Impish one will not fare well in the showers. Fortune in Men’s Eyes.
Steve Charles
“Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”
Although it may not do much, the opticss of it is very important.
Glücklich
Bloomberg reports he’s been arrested on securities fraud surrounding his time as CEO of that biotech company.
Glücklich
had to pull it from the BBG crawl….
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-martin-shkreli-securities-fraud/
toronto
Update your article, this gem has been arrested for mail fraud. Karma baby
Bryguyf69
Two stories this morning about spoiled rich douches. 1) Martin Shkreli has been arrested for security fraud; 2) Ethan Couch, the kid who killed 4 people and injured many more after driving drunk and high — but escaped jail because of “affluenza” — has disappeared, violating his parole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaEg8TDnmdc
Bryguyf69
Here is Shkreli’s latest webstream, just hours before his arrest. We see him ignoring an apparent call from a Federal agent at 1:21:35. Yes, these videos are hours long; this stream is 3 hrs. We get to see Martin sing, play guitar, masturbate, play chess, muse about life, etc. He takes calls at the end.
https://youtu.be/I-4D6yj-cR4?t=1h21m35s
Bryguyf69
Here is the “alluenza” story. A source captured video that allegedly showed Ethan Couch playing alcohol games at a party. While this video doesn’t show him drinking, the source claims to have more damning footage. After the vudeo surfaced, Couch and his mother failed to check in with his parole officer. Authorities think that the two left the country because additional footage will show him drinking, violating his probation, leading to jail. For those who don’t know, because his parents could afford it, his “rehab” was a spa where riding horses and similar activities were considered therapy. Apparently, the moronic judge felt that the solution to de-spoil Ethan was to spoil him some more at a posh spa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5soPeUReJ8
benadam
This man is just as bad as a terrorist.
Desert Boy
The U.S. is the only industrialized nation without drug price controls.
Bryguyf69
And the US is only one of two nations that allows direct marketing of drugs, aka commercials, to consumers. In fact, during certain hours, about 1/3 of TV commercials are drug-related. Seriously, do a count next time you watch TV and you’ll be shocked.
CleJoke
APPLE does the same thing with the iPhone. Except no one is dying from lack of having an iPhone.
BTW can you use an iPhone on an Obamaphone plan?