The reputation and credibility of the pharma industry sank to a new low in 2015 with news that the price of Daraprim (Pyrimethamine), an anti-parasitic drug that is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines, had been raised from $13.50 to $750 per tablet. Marketed since the 1950s, the drug was acquired by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up company run by Martin Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager. Astonishingly, with even the global mass media seemingly aghast at his greed, Shkreli shamelessly attempted to portray the price rise as “altruistic”.
In a separate case in 2017, Shkreli was subsequently convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy for defrauding investors out of more than $10 million. The following year he was sentenced to seven years in prison. Released in 2022, he has since been attempting to overturn a lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry that was imposed on him by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
However, despite the impression given by this story, the fact is that dramatic price rises are actually the norm in the pharma industry. Only rarely are drug company executives fined for setting astronomical prices for the medications they sell. It is thus not by accident that we refer to this industry as the ‘business with disease’.
To learn more about the background to the Martin Shkreli story, see this article on our website.
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News
Martin Shkreli, the “pharma bro” entrepreneur who astronomically increased the price of a life-saving drug by more than 4,000 percent and became a symbol of corporate Wall Street greed, cannot return to the pharmaceutical industry, a court has ruled.
[Source: theguardian.com]
[Image source: Wikimedia]
Comment
The reputation and credibility of the pharma industry sank to a new low in 2015 with news that the price of Daraprim (Pyrimethamine), an anti-parasitic drug that is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines, had been raised from $13.50 to $750 per tablet. Marketed since the 1950s, the drug was acquired by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up company run by Martin Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager. Astonishingly, with even the global mass media seemingly aghast at his greed, Shkreli shamelessly attempted to portray the price rise as “altruistic”.
In a separate case in 2017, Shkreli was subsequently convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy for defrauding investors out of more than $10 million. The following year he was sentenced to seven years in prison. Released in 2022, he has since been attempting to overturn a lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry that was imposed on him by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
However, despite the impression given by this story, the fact is that dramatic price rises are actually the norm in the pharma industry. Only rarely are drug company executives fined for setting astronomical prices for the medications they sell. It is thus not by accident that we refer to this industry as the ‘business with disease’.
To learn more about the background to the Martin Shkreli story, see this article on our website.
Dr. Rath Health Foundation
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