Martin Shkreli claims he’s happy to “play to part” of greedy CEO/America’s most hated man. But after less than 48 hours, it seems the pressure is getting to him.
The ex-hedge-funder-turned-pharmaceutical-price-gouger made headlines this week when he raised the price Daraprim, a drug that treats life-threatening parasitic infections in AIDS patients, from $13.50 to $750 a tablet. (For the record: Each tablet only costs about $1 to produce.)
Related: Ex-Hedge Funder Buys Rights To AIDS Drug, Raises Price 5,455 Percent
“It really doesn’t make sense to get any criticism for this,” Shkreli told the New York Times. “This isn’t the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients. It is us trying to stay in business.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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Related: Can We Blame Wall Street For All the AIDS Patients Now On Waiting Lists?
Over the past day or so, Shkreli seems to have been glued to his Twitter page, spewing off childish and snarky remarks at internet trolls and generally being an unapologetic little bitch.
But despite his overconfidence, it seems Shkreli may not be cut out for the long term role of supervillian, after all. He announced earlier today that he will be “flipping my Twitter to private” after receiving an endless string of nasty comments. Evidently, he can’t take the heat as well as he dishes it, though he claims it’s because he is “busy” with his “important job” coming up with the next group of patients to price gouge.
After abandoning Twitter, here’s to hoping he abandons his evil business practices as well. We are not holding our breath.
Scroll down to read some of what he’s been saying on Twitter, which we screen grabbed. (Seriously, someone needs to get this dude a publicist ASAP!)…
Peter McKinney
Did this bag of piss lower the price?
Richard Diment
No increased it
Richard Diment
From 13 ish to 750 a pill
Dennis C. McGrath
Oh nice. Gone private. I hope no one he cares for ever contracts toxoplasmosis.
Doug Anderson
Hope so ! He is a Hostage taker.
Sheryl Mcallister
Hope somehow Karma get’s him and he can’t afford to pay for it. What a selfish,childish pig.
Carlos Zuniga
What a cunt, he could’ve done something amazing and been revered throughout the world yet greed got the worst of him……..karma
Rowdy Volmer
Oh…poor Mr. Hedge Fund Man……buys up drug, raises price, gets called a douche bag and his feelings get hurt……F*** OFF……idiot.
Adam Brady
Like I said before, His stocks will fail, he will lose millions, and he will fall into obscurity
Charles Tsua
Can’t take the heat, don’t wear the tweed.
Therese Bacciarini-Miller
Martin Shkreli is a douchey lil greedy dickhead.. *I hope BIG Pharma and his company in particular go belly up
Alan Lawson
Awww the greedy, rich asswipe that everybody hates. Boo hoo.
Vishal Singh
What was he expecting
John Andrew K. Carver
The Pope should pay this ass a visit. But I may be too late cause this greedy jerk is going to hell.
Joshua Anthony Villegas
He needs to be punched one good time in his ugly, impish face! Scumbag!
Desert Boy
He’s vile. I hope someone kicks his greedy ass.
John Malin
Are we supposed ot feel guilty? The idiot is a sociopathic monster and should be dropped in the ocean weighteddown by his own greed.
Stephen Meeks
Oh, Boo Hoo
Jennifer Mercury
I imagine this is what a textbook sociopath looks like.
Rick Holtz
Greedy, selfish douchebag.
Glücklich
I don’t have the words.
Michael Miller
Special place in Hell.
Jim DelRae
Becca Bandiere
Awwwwww
Russ Kohn
Just keep an eye on him and his doings, he will get this raised very quietly in the future!
Diane Lyle
No regards for anyones life hope he doesn’t lose it all and need his own and can’t get it??? umm karma’s a bitch you know so is that fire i’m sure when the gate up there is closed o you???? can have it all one day /gone the next??? happens all the time get a clue bud!!!! greed will get you noooo where but hell enjoy while you can cuz you won’t take it with you thats a promise!!!! haa are you seeing your Doc soon ??? hoping so
Will Glitzern
He is an asshole.
Billy Budd
There is no doubt in my mind that this guy is evil.
James Benge
Fucking douche bag.
McShane
@Glücklich:
This should help you find ’em.
http://gawker.com/lawsuit-scumbag-pharma-price-gouger-stalked-and-harass-1732357240
Kathryn Henry
Maybe he didn’t understand that people that aren’t him actually care if someone can’t afford their medicine and die because of greed.
barkomatic
Big Pharma is pissing their pants right now I bet. Greedy moves like this are a rallying cry for regulation which they obviously don’t want. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the larger companies buys the drug from him and lowers back to where it was as damage control.
I can’t believe we live in a system that allows a childish rich boy to toy with people’s lives. Every comment he makes shows his immaturity.
Kelvin Johnson
Hate to say it but he is the type of person who will walk infront of a bus and you keep sippin your coffee..
William Adkins
Dear Karma,
May he contract a medical condition that requires him to have ungodly medical costs whilst being bedridden, unimaginable financial woes, and mental stress to the point that all of the medicines in the world can’t let him sleep at night.
A Humane Being
SeeingAll
Now THIS guy deserves to be stalked and harassed (instead of some bar owner in North Carolina who one gay couple claimed was mean to them).
Richard Schtulberg
this creep should be hung by his testicals until he stops screaming.
any misspelling is due to restricted vision.
jimontp
Where does this greedy little bitch live? That’s where the the stalking and harassment should be. Not online, but real life, like where the folks who need this drug to save their lives are.
Alejandro Padilla Jasso
Move over Kim Davis… this moron is the new bastard of the Web
Douglas Schlitz
Maybe we will all luck out and a bus will run over his greedy sad ass!
Michael Golisek
I
Timothy Grover
He looks like a sociopath!
Tammie Edgerton
And now being investigated for insider trading and fraud by the SEC. Way to bring attention to yourself. I hope they nail his ass. Jail time.
tjr101
I’ll bet my measly salary this guy is a republican that benefited from insider family links to get where he is today. He’s only 32. I just saw an interview of him and he comes off as very cold, selfish and immature.
KerryB
Isn’t he one of the greedy bastards that caused the last economic collapse?
Giancarlo85
There comes a time that the government needs to move in and seize control. That is called nationalization. If it is in the interest of the citizens and the nation, it must be done. This guy deserves serious jail time.
Kraig Fiero
How is the FDA not stepping in at all?
SeeingAll
@Giancarlo85: (Ugh….you’re pretending to be Eva Peron tonight).
Pete Ascolese
Please send some hateful words to this entitled douche!
[email protected]
Cole Bradley Naumann
Has anyone brought to light that walgreens has exclusivity to obtain this drug???? so they most likely struck a nice deal with him …
Giancarlo85
@SeeingAll: And you’re just a lunatic who can’t see other ways. You subscribe to American exceptionalist bullshit. This is how it is done even in other DEVELOPED countries. Of course you subscribe to greed like a typical right winger.
Jay Bowyer
douche bag
SeeingAll
@Giancarlo85: Oh…the nationalization part I have mixed feelings about. But it’s you thinking you look like Eva Peron that irks me.
Victor Incerti
Disgusting!!
scotty
i wouldnt even hatefuck him.
Glücklich
@McShane:
Oh my god! No wonder I can’t get to sleep! That’s like nightmare stuff.
Joe Fisher
He’s a greedy selfish son of a b—h
Lisa Browne
Glücklich
@Glücklich:
Lakeview Terrace/Changing Lanes/Fatal Attraction/Unlawful Entry type stuff. Squirrelchuck’s a sociopath.
Raymond Perez
Chickenshit little bitch needs to be slapped so hard his children will be born dizzy.
Windsor519
I don’t understand our governments (I’m from Canada but we end up with much of the same MISERY as you guys)…first our pain pills are taken away (if you’re a veteran who has sustained serious/traumatic injuries – we basically were taken off everything because these doctors here are more afraid of getting sued for prescribing pain pills than they are concerned for their patient’s safety and comfort) and now this. I am outraged that now we are controlled by not only big pharma, not only by doctors who are now afraid to treat us – because prescribing certain medications ‘might make us drug addicts’ (if I’m in serious pain and that makes me a drug addict – then fine – call me one), and now this price gouging.
One thing I was afraid of with HIV treatments was in the back of my mind I knew that someday this would happen, or that a particular strain of HIV would suddenly stop responding to treatments or a new strain would develop where no treatment worked. I don’t want to get all preachy on everyone but this is why it’s still so important to remain vigilant when it comes to playing safe – you don’t want to have to live this way – wondering if you’ll get treated, wondering if your insurance will cover your care, wondering if you will end up having to move into public housing because your meds/treatment plan has bankrupted you to the point where your home and possessions are gone…please be careful and play safe. You do not want to end up in this MESS.
Michael Englehardt
He is just gross, shame on him for trying to profit off of those that need this medication. he is the epitome of evil greed. what goes around comes around.
Giancarlo85
@SeeingAll: You’re a demented fool. You know what irks me? You think you know everything, but you don’t realize how little you know and how ignorant you are.
Rosalynn D'Angela
decides a more realiztic price is $750 per pill. that will be the american price …. will time to start bootlegging plenty of european companies and mexico company that will be stepping up
George Pateman
Young, greedy, callous and now, enlightened.
John Francis Grice
greedy little sociopath
Xzamilio
The prick buckled and lowered the price… I guess he really couldn’t stomach what he was dishing out…
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/09/22/3704542/after-getting-shamed-for-5000-hike-most-hated-man-in-america-will-lower-drug-price/
SeeingAll
@Xzamilio: Oh ! Thanks for that info.
Timothy Herbert
Patents expire 20 years from the date of filing. Many other factors can affect the duration of a patent. It depends on what type of exclusivity is granted. See 21 C.F.R. 314.108 New Drug Product Exclusivity.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/21/314.108
The drug in question is over 60 years old…
enough about this…
Jeanette Knepp
He is clearly a psychopath.
Giancarlo85
Still… if I was in charge, I would order the FBI to raid his offices and seize control of his assets. Might happen anyways because he’s committed other financial wrongdoings. Shkreli represents the worst of American capitalism and is American exceptionalism gone horribly wrong.
Anselmo Martinez
What he shouldn’t be able to handle is how much of a dirty greasy dick bag he is
Valerie Anderson
Terrible to do what he’s doing!
Carl Simon
Can YOU spell greedy?
Jordan Lee
I hope he kills himself
jwtraveler
This is the USA. Greed is good. Profit comes first, second, third and last. Health care is a business. Price controls are anathema. Medicare is prohibited by law from negotiating prices for medications. Human life is irrelevant. The only reason to keep people alive is so they can keep paying for treatments. Don’t like it? You voted for it. Want to change it? Find candidates who will put human life before corporate profit. Definitely not Republicans. We know where they stand.
Giancarlo85
Turns out this guy has a history of stealing and harassment. He’s nothing more than a low-life con-artist.
Bryan T. Clark
He’s a pig
SeeingAll
@jwtraveler: So…Greed is a bad thing. Do you feel that way about the other six Deadly Sins ?
Wesley Foreman
truly believes that there is #ASpecialPlaceInHellForMartinShkreli.
Cam
From what I read, the pills cost far less than 1 dollar per pill to produce because they used to only cost One Dollar to buy.
They were sold to a different company first, and THAT company increased the price to the $13.50 that you see in the articles before this guy increased them to 750.00 per pill.
This CEO looks like he just caved, but I doubt it was because of Tweeta. More likely the entire Pharmaceutical industry quietly threatened him because both Clinton and Sanders were talking about legislation to halt the practice of buying up old drugs and doing what thus guy did. They cited thus case directly.
The other companies probably said that they wouldn’t manufacturer any pills for his company if he didn’t back off and get attention off their industry.
Jacques LaRose
What a douchebag
BigG
Truly disgusting behaviour. But he’s not the only one price gouging meds. Sadly it is the world we live in. It’s nothing new, just with social media, you can put a face to it.
Bob Kellerman
Old photo of him —
Ralph Love
murderer, manslaughterer. you should be stripped of your ill-gotten wealth and made to work in a hospital caring for those who you have harmed.
Tommy Parlon
Such a douchbag.
Jason Bertalotto
Fire Martin Shrkreli ASAP!
Jeff Borg
Investigate him into the dirt.
Glücklich
Can Queerty take this guy’s picture from the top of the home page? That face makes me want to punch the screen in.
And who the hell has glamour shots taken in front of their Bloomberg terminal? I mean, besides me. At least I don’t look like a grinning gargoyle in mine.
Cam
Also, the Media keeps misreporting. Queerty actually reported this correctly.
The mews keeps saying that this is an AIDS drug, which in some ways can defend a price in crease more if it was a hugely complicated, recently created drug.
No, this is NOT one of the major AIDS drugs, this is a drug, that simply fights off, one of the infections AIDS patients and infants are susceptible to.
The REASON that the company that sold him this drug could ASK 50 million for it was because of U.S. laws that allow gouging like this. So they aren’t innocent either, they sold it by letting people know that they could buy it and jack up the price.
The fact that one simple tweet from Hillary Clinton about this sent Pharma stocks crashing shows how much of their profit is based on things like this.
Steve Johnson
Financial pain and public humiliation should be relentless on this piece of human waste. At least let him set a good example to others who might want to take the same path of inexcusable greed!
EvonCook
First of all, let’s remember it was Bush, with the support of AARP, that backed the law written by and for the pharmaceutical industry forbidding Medicare, Medicaid and other government agencies from being able to bargain and get reductions on medicine prices. Secondly, let’s remember that the government gives subsidies, tax relief and supports medical research by many avenues including allowing drug companies to write off their taxes the costs and expenses of such “developmental” activity not to mention outrageous advertising, and obviously there should be a public influence for and benefit from such corporate welfare. Thirdly, perhaps the licensing and far stricter patent regulations need examining, not to mention the curtailing of extended copyrights. Fourthly, when monopolies exist for certain drugs, competition is in the public interest and should be allowed if not required. Why are there not generics of these and other drugs? Finally, if a drug is essential to the public health and humanitarian needs, there should always be the right of eminent domain invoked to fulfill societal and humanitarian needs over gross monetary profits, after all, isn’t this price gouging analogous to “war profiteering?” The double standard and hypocrisy is so very brazen and unnoticed that capitalism wants to hold the free market sacredly inviolate and claims rights to do whatever they want for their God Mammon, but then they want all the perks, help, supports, subsidies, write-offs, tax breaks, protections and loopholes that government can be bought, fooled or pressured into giving them on the people’s tab without real tangible benefits for the public good. Government corporate welfare, if anyone tabulated it, truly dwarfs what is given as human welfare. Where is that incredible and innovative group ACT UP who might make Mr. Shkreli’s and his ilk’s businesses and lives the living hell that they are callously doing to others and which they so clearly deserve! Another reason, my friends, to vote for Bernie Sanders who values people and society and puts the public interest and good before our corporate overlords and profit masters.
jwtraveler
@SeeingAll: Huh?
LadyL
@EvonCook: Bravo, EvonCook! Thank you!
OhHellNo
Finally I know who the phrase “Die, yuppie scum” was written for. I have some blood I’d like to send him…
SeeingAll
@jwtraveler: I’m not arguing with you. Just pondering the subject. It’s funny because I don’t think Greed is necessarily a bad thing (except in cases like with this guy). Neither is Lust, or Anger or Pride or some of the other Deadly Sins. They can all be used in the right way to be productive.
Don Hanover
during his interviews it seems to me that he resembles a serial killer who thinks that he’s doing people a favorâ?¦
jwtraveler
@SeeingAll: I wasn’t making a theological argument. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Greed is always a bad thing.
SeeingAll
@jwtraveler: (rolls eyes) You sound like Pope Francis. (“Greed is always a bad thing” is way too simplistic a philosophy).
Kip Hurwitz
Giancarlo85
@SeeingAll: And you sound like a simpleton who posts on here to provoke people with your stupid replies. You think you’re so smart but you really sound like an idiot.
Doughosier
Most of the problems of the World can be attributed to greed.