Price-gouging pharma bro under investigation for corporate looting, fraud and stalking

[IDemo]

This isn’t the first time Martin Shkreli, the most hated man on the Internet, has attracted criticism for his unscrupulous business dealings.

Shkreli has ignited a firestorm after purchasing the rights to Daraprim, a 62-year-old drug used for treating life-threatening parasitic infections in babies and AIDS patients, and raising the price overnight from $13.50 per tablet to $750.

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The company he founded in 2009 sued Shkreli last month for $65 million in damages, claiming the ex-hedge fund manager gave away Retrophin shares to friends and used the biotech firm’s assets to pay off personal debts and keep afloat his sinking investment firm, MSMB Capital Management.

A filing made in November 2014 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed Shkreli pulled in nearly $3 million in gross proceeds as he continued selling company stock while simultaneously urging investors to buy into Retrophin — which the rapper-quoting then-CEO hyped on his Twitter account.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/price-gouging-pharma-bro-under-investigation-for-corporate-looting-fraud-and-stalking/

[Fuddnik]

1. If ever there were a terrorist who deserves to be in Gitmo, it's this guy.

Seize all of his assets and waterboard him for the rest of his life.

Sorry, but they invented Hell for assholes like this.

[KansDem]

3. I'm with you...

Last edited Tue Sep 22, 2015, 11:16 AM - Edit history (1)

from Wikipedia--

Pyrimethamine /paɪrɪmɛ?eɪmiːn/ (trade name Daraprim) is a medication used for protozoal infections. It is commonly used as an antimalarial drug (for both treatment and prevention of malaria), and to treat Toxoplasma gondii infections, particularly when combined with the sulfonamide antibiotic sulfadiazine when treating HIV-positive individuals.

It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed in a basic health system.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrimethamine

And this f*cker jacks up the price over 5,000 percent?

Seize all of his assets -- Agreed. No one should profit from another's sickness or injury.

[jwirr]

8. This is why Doctors Without Borders was against TPP.

[Enthusiast]

9. Just wait until the TPP becomes law. You ain't seen nothing yet.

[randys1]

26. Teaparty is probably worshipping the guy today

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. Backpfeifengesicht. nt

[IDemo]

5. Made me DuckDuckGo it:

Backpfeifengesicht (German): A face badly in need of a fist

That works for me.

[Fuddnik]

17. One better

About a dozen Hells Angels in steel toed motorcycle boots.

[kelliekat44]

4. Take some Pharma CEO with him. Please note that much of the R&D on drugs is paid for by Fed

government through grants, contracts, clinical trials. The government through it huge biomedical research are, the National Institutes of Health, funds most of the R&D yet phara companies claim they need to charge high prices to recoup
R&D expenditures, when in fact the taxpayer has already covered most of these costs. What the Pharma companies really are charging so much for is development, advertisement, and distribution. And then they get tax breaks for these. It's a system that needs to be looked at very closely including the connections between some drug companies, NIH researchers, and their licensing and patent rights after using tax-payer dollars to conduct the research. It is a bastardized system and has roots in the FDA-NIH-Patent Office-big Phara-AMA-Health Insurance companies. The evidence is out there. You just need some one to look at it and connect the dots.

[jwirr]

10. That is what I was wondering about when I read Hillary's

drug idea. Big pharma has been blaming the cost of research for the rising cost of drugs for years when all along it has been the taxpayers who have been paying the cost.

So much for her plan.

[Dustlawyer]

21. I dont expect Hillary to do much other than empty promises and platitudes. She may make a campaign

issue out of this, but there will be no real reform.

This is why we need the Bernie revolution. There are so many areas where the corporations and Plutocrats have unfairly taken advantage of their fellow countrymen and remained above the law. The biggest and best way to solve most of these problems start by demanding Publicly Funded Elections, locking the "Revolving Door," busting up the Wall Street banks and media oligopolies, protecting the electronic voting system and restoring voting rights (exit polling to start), and getting Bernie and other like-minded candidates elected! All of this would return the power back to the people where it used to be and where it belongs.

[jwirr]

24. Exactly. So we fight on.

[kelliekat44]

35. May i say we really don't know what any of the candidates will do or be allowed to do if elected.

At this point everything is rhetoric, talk, and promises.

[Dustlawyer]

36. Not true! Both Hillary and Bernie have long political histories. I think we can extrapolate a

a great deal. On an individual issue there can be surprises or evolution, as the case may be, but on the whole I think we know how they would govern.

Obama on the other hand did not have a long record and surprised many of us being more conservative than we expected in certain areas. I attribute many of those conservative surprises on quid pro quo's for his big supporters.

This is how the game has been played in modern times, but the game has become very one-sided. I would use the analogy of a crooked football referee. It used to be he would only make a few bogus calls a game, such as holding on a key third down here or there, but over time it became several times a drive and so blatantly bad everyone could see he was completely wrong.

That is how our politics has become. It is time for the NFL to fire all of the referees, institute a lot more replays.... Bernie is calling for the overhaul now! It is so bad no one really even denies it now. We judge the strength of our candidates now by how much bribe money they have taken in, plus we "Supersized" it with Super Pacs!

[sharp_stick]

18. No the Federal Government

doesn't generally fund clinical trials unless the condition being treated by the drug in question can be considered an "orphan". That is a very serious condition that affects a very small proportion of of the population. The other time that the Government might fund a trial is if the drug has been developed by a non-profit institution, University or Government body like the NIH or CDC.

In 2012 more than 75% of all clinical trials were funded privately.

Most big Pharma companies don't apply for or receive Federal grants for research/development because any granting body immediately receives a portion of profit from any drug that makes it to market. All drug companies however take advantage of any of the R&D tax credits available.

Here's a simplistic but decent article from Berkeley.

http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/who_pays

[MynameisBlarney]

6. All the gouging and sneaky BS

from this asshole and others like him highlight the need for the healthcare industries in this country to be nationalized.

No one should go into life crushing debt because of an illness.

[jwirr]

11. Even worse no one should have to go without a medication

because some investor wants to get richer. No TPP.

[Iggo]

7. Sometimes people like him are torn limb-from-limb by angry mobs.

If that happens to this guy, I will note how unfortunate it is right before I lose zero sleep over it.

[eppur_se_muova]

19. Ah, for the good old days ... nt

[ChisolmTrailDem]

22. My initial response was that this dude should have his limbs pulled from his body. Seems I'm

not alone.

[MynameisBlarney]

23. Mine was that he needs

an asskickin' to knock that fucking smirk off his face.

[cstanleytech]

12. I thought drug patents expired after 25 or 30 years?

[christx30]

13. You're exactly right.

But they will put it off as long as possible by reformulating the drug to start the clock over on the patent. They'll make meaningless changes ("What would happen if we add Tylenol to this cancer drug?&quot , but still keep the precursor, which keeps making them money.
It's a racket.

[GoneFishin]

25. Then the original formulations under the full term lapsed patents should be in the public domain for

competitors to make.

[christx30]

28. Oh I agree fully.

It should be legal for another company to say, "Here's our $11 version of that guy's $750 per dose version."

[hedgehog]

15. The problem with generics right now is that many are manufactured

by only one company - which can set any price it wants.

http://www.healthline.com/health-news/plaquenil-shortage-leaves-ra-lupus-patients-in-pain-030715#3

[gcomeau]

16. He doesn't have the patent.

It's just that nobody else makes it so he has a monopoly.

[niyad]

14. Nemesis, darling, would you take care of this slimebucket, please?

[ryan_cats]

20. The most hated man on the Internets?

The most hated man on the Internets?

Does Cecil yet live?

[Takket]

27. justice for this scumbag........

He raised the pill to $750 per tablet? here's what he deserves..........

Take everything he has, except for $749, then infect him with the parasite this drug treats. Maybe then he'll understand the consequences to real people of price gouging.

[Nye Bevan]

29. Is anyone, anyone at all, praising or defending this guy online? (nt)

[IDemo]

30. Retweets of other people’s tweets which praise him as “god” and attack his critics

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/these-37-tweets-show-how-the-pharma-ceo-gouging-aids-patients-is-even-worse-than-you-think/

[Nye Bevan]

32. Wow. Just horrible (nt)

[Faux pas]

31. Lower than

low.

[Javaman]

33. modern day gatspy.

instead of daisy his quest is only for money.

[napkinz]

34. makes me sick ...