The Guy Who Raised the Price of an AIDS Drug by 5000% is Responding to Backlash Like a Sociopath

Yesterday we told you the story of Martin Shkreli, the 32-year-old weasel who bought a drug that’s been around for over six decades and raised the price by 5000% per cent overnight so his company could “turn a profit on [it].”

Shkreli used to be a hedge fund manager and evokes the image of someone who can’t be trusted as a babysitter for five minutes, which, combined with the reprehensible absurdity of the American pharmaceutical industry, makes this whole thing not so surprising.

The drug in question is called Daraprim and is effective in treating life-threatening parasitic infections, most commonly for those living with HIV and cancer. It now costs $750 per pill instead of $13.50.

Medical organizations and media around the world, as well as most of the Internet, condemned his action, and we all patiently awaited a response from the outspoken medical professional profiteer.

While he’s responded to previous disputes with outrageous lawsuits, this time he decided to take the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ approach. His method? Eminem lyrics:

Shkreli has since been on a social media bender, retweeting dozens of people who presumably agree with him that saving lives should come at a premium. He’s especially proud of an interview with Bloomberg in which he manages an impressive five minutes of coherence (not as per usual) that actually further exposes his fangs and horns.

He bemoaned “companies before us [who] were actually just giving it away almost” and that at $13.50 “…you only needed less than 100 pills…so the price for the course of treatment to save your life was only $1000.” All synonyms of the word ‘sociopath’ apply to a person who honestly thinks this is a bad thing.

His argument that the drug has always been underpriced and needs to be adjusted after 62 years to conform to the calculations of a business plan is exactly what’s wrong with a very loosely regulated pharmaceutical industry.

We’ll just leave this here: