Hedge fund manager buys drug company, raises price of pill from $13.50 to $750

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DooshBag Alert, D O O S H B A G!

PS. Let me know when he starts working for Trump’s campaign?

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If that’s what they charge, that’s what the Market wants them to charge. Praise be Its name, amen. And lo, though the babies were born with their immune systems compromised, followers of Market knew that they truly were the chosen ones.

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But hasn’t the patent expired? Isn’t there a generic available?

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Yes. No. This seems like a perfect opportunity for a generic manufacturer to step in and show the market what competition looks like.

::three months later:: And generic Daraprim costs a low, low $650 compared to the brand name $750…

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“It’s fun to single out Shkreli for his questionable ethics…” I hardly would think it’s “fun”… This person is a sociopath and apparently a narcissist. His self absorbed desire for fame and glee at apparently “playing the system” is pathetic. The idea that he would be held up as a example of a “successful business person” is a disappointment. Predatory business practices that fly in the face of the compassionate medical care should not be encouraged. Constructive criticism is not considered “fun” as much it’s an attempt to correct a wrong.

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it should even possible to let the market sort it out - if the drug is 62 years old it’s not patented anymore, so it seems obvious for other pharma companies to ramp up the production of generic medicaments (looks not too complicated)

(for comparison: the Swiss price of Daraprim/Pyrimethamine is 9.05 CHF/30 tablets, produced by GSK, a company not known for generosity)

– link fix, compendium.ch should work now…

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He has that covered:
NYT:
“With the price now high, other companies could conceivably make generic
copies, since patents have long expired. One factor that could
discourage that option is that Daraprim’s distribution is now tightly
controlled, making it harder for generic companies to get the samples
they need for the required testing.The
switch from drugstores to controlled distribution was made in June by
Impax, not by Turing. Still, controlled distribution was a strategy Mr.
Shkreli talked about at his previous company as a way to thwart
generics.”

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It’s possible, but the costs of developing the pipeline to make it, scaling it to industrial levels, purifying the product, then getting FDA approval are prohibitive. Especially to make a point about not doing it for profit.

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The revolution wall is getting mighty crowded.

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I keep having this image of the Platonic Ideal of the modern Republican when reading this sort of thing–that of a desiccated corpse with a smile on its lips, having poisoned the last water for miles around, because it was his, dammit, and nobody else was going to benefit from it!

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Under European rules generic medicament approvals are afaik fast-tracked - only bioequivalence studies are needed, when those are conclusive the clinical trial results of the original drug can be used. Is the FDA regulation more strict?

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Well, it would benefit rich people if they were, so I’m going to put my $20 on ‘yes’.

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It’s people like this disgusting weasel that will bring about the end of our species.

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And the parasite still can’t afford fashion sense.

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Honestly we’re now beyond my area of expertise, but we are talking about the country that still has physicians on the national stage that don’t want to declare that vaccines are safe.

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this is the kind of guy who best improves the world by leaving it. All we can do is hope that happens soon…

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The dude is really trying to push the envelope of douchebaggery.
Profiting off those suffering from illness.
Everything in his narcissist persona.
Citing Eminem as his moral guide.
Pretending he is some automaton that has no agency and must drive up prices by the will of the Holy Free Market.
Soiling the good name of Turing.
I wish the last thing didn’t make me so pissed, but damn, I so want to punch that guy in the face for it.

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It’s so bizarre that even disgusting sociopaths know that poverty and income inequality are structural, but policymakers can’t seem to get this through their thick-ass skulls.

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He started MSMB Capital, a hedge fund company, in his 20s and drew attention for urging the Food and Drug Administration not to approve certain drugs made by companies whose stock he was shorting.

In 2011, Mr. Shkreli started Retrophin, which also acquired old neglected drugs and sharply raised their prices. Retrophin’s board fired Mr. Shkreli a year ago. Last month, it filed a complaint in Federal District Court in Manhattan, accusing him of using Retrophin as a personal piggy bank to pay back angry investors in his hedge fund.

This guy is definitely going to end up in jail at some point in his life.

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