Pharma, Policy

Hey, Martin Shkreli: Shut. The hell. Up

Just stop, dude. You're ruining it for the rest of us.

Maybe we should thank Martin Shkreli. Healthcare has so few dude bros. He’s pushing hard to be medicine’s Dude Bro No. 1.

Because in an election year, when healthcare’s discourse is all about lowering costs and improving efficiency, when there are very pricey drugs that can legitimately make a case for their price tag, and the biggest healthcare issues are repealing Obamacare and how crazy Dr. Ben Carson is, the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals has come off like, WTF – raise the prices, dude!

As you should know, Shkreli has made headlines in USA Today, The New York Times and, well, you name it for taking a little-known orphan drug from $13.5o to $750. And all because he seems to prefer price-gouging to raising more private capital.

So, as a result:

But he is unapologetic, firing off an endless series of (not) classic tweets.

He’s trying to recover via an appearance on Bloomberg today. I think he realized this isn’t all about him, but instead he’s now become a microcosm for the frustration over drug pricing.

In his interview, he also backpedals. Suddenly, for example, many will get his drug for free.

But beyond the spin the bottom-line message is still the same: we’re going to build our company on the back of this drug and we’re doing it to largely fuel interest in an alternative drug we’re developing (even though some in medicine say there’s no need).

That’s a bad idea. First, he’s wrong to do it that way. It is bad business.

Plus, it means politicians, at best, and regulators, at worst, will spend more time looking at these deals and tying in Sovaldi and other high-priced cures that may need to be expensive. If you don’t think it will scuttle other movements, such as ending the medical-device tax, you’re as high as Daraprim right now.

Thanks, dude.

Also read: Ex-Hedge Fund Manager Turned Pharmaceutical CEO Doesn’t See The Big Deal Charging $750 Today For Life-Saving Drug That Cost $13.50 Yesterday on DealBreaker

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