Industry groups BIO and PhRMA gave Turing Pharmaceuticals and its CEO, Martin Shkreli, the cold shoulder.
.@TuringPharma does not represent the values of @PhRMA member companies.
— PhRMA (@PhRMA) September 22, 2015
BIO kicked Turing out of the group.
Shkreli, in about as plain of terms as you could get, does not care. Here’s what he had to say (starts at 17:31 mark) Friday on MedHeads, MedCityNews.com’s weekly video podcast.
PhRMA, BIO – I think they’re all hypocrites.
I didn’t even know we were part of BIO. It’s one of the most sycophantic self-serving groups there is. I don’t know what value they provide. They begged us to be a member for years.
They said something like we don’t fulfill the objective of BIO in doing research? We spend more money in research than I would venture to guess more than 75 percent of BIO members. That’s sort of bullshit to me.
PhRMA? Again, talk about an industry that relies on price increases for growth? You’re looking at it.
So why the cold shoulder from the industry? “Perhaps there’s criticism because I’m 32-years-old, I don’t wear a suit, the average guy with my job is double my age, looks a little bit differently,” he said.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
