On Friday, Martin Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison for his convictions on multiple counts of securities fraud — closing the book, for now, on the story of the drug executive who became one of the most despised people in the country.
Shkreli, of course, gained notoriety for raising the price of an old generic drug by 5,000 percent. His trial had nothing to do with that decision. But that has not stopped him from being a useful foil for pharma executives, who have done everything they can to distance themselves from the “Pharma Bro.”
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Meanwhile, Adam, did the ‘Pharma Bro’s’ prior company ever lower the exorbitant price he set for the drug? There has been no follow-up on that I have seen. That would be another example of getting away Scott free.
Marty did his crime
Now we need the SEC to nail the
Short shill and manipulation bring done
On the internet
Bio so called experts destroying drugs and companies
With hit pieces and constant bashing to support
The Shorts
I believe Jason N was recently charged
Now we need to arrest all of them
One hit piece can tank a great company
And wipe out retail investors in minutes
Jail them too
Recovering investment in R&D is very important and making a profit is also important but there are notable cases of outright greed that exceed anything Shkrelli did. Just to cite one example Alexion’s drug Solaris sells for $400k per year. Is this a fair price? They’ve made back their investment in this drug many times over and the only reason they and other pharma companies get away with this is we have no system to control prices like everywhere else in the world. Or even the ability on the part of Medicare to negotiate prices. The article makes a great point about Shkrelli and the denial/propaganda machine that’s in place
Greed…pure and simple. One of the many things that needs to be cobtrolled or changed in health care.
It is one thing to price new drugs for rare diseases and at high prices to recover the huge investments in R&D when the only alternative standard of care has significantly less efficacy and earlier mortality is the only other likely prognosis. It is another when Shkreli and people of his ilk price a lifesaving drug, that has been on the market for many years at affordable prices, to extremely high prices that few can then afford. I have no sympathy for Shkreli, now facing seven years in prison, or for the investors that profited from his greed and enflicted misery and financial ruin on the sick and vulnerable in society.