We have found the worst human being on earth, Pharma Bro

[BigRedChief]

Former Wall street wunderkid now up on charges of inside trading.

Daraprim, which went from costing $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill when he tool over the company, is used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic condition that can occur in pregnant women and people with the HIV virus.

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[teedubya]

Martin Shekreli or whatever his name is has been hated marvelously online the past six months or so. It's been hilarious. Fuck that guy.

[Rain Man]

Yeah, I'm not sure why a guy about to go to prison thinks it's funny. But whatever.

How did a guy like this end up rising to a high position anyway? I'm guessing he stabbed everybody around him in the back multiple times.

[Eleazar]

Q x 50

[listopencil]

Retroactive Abortion.

[Discuss Thrower]

Yeah, I'm not sure why a guy about to go to prison thinks it's funny. But whatever.

How did a guy like this end up rising to a high position anyway? I'm guessing he stabbed everybody around him in the back multiple times.

He's a smart guy that worked his way up from relatively nothing.

He got greedy. So what?

[Kman34]

His lawyer looks like a slimball too..... Hang em from their balls..

[Rain Man]

He's a smart guy that worked his way up from relatively nothing.

He got greedy. So what?

Seems pretty arrogant from what I've heard. Usually that type of person doesn't stand on the shoulders of giants, but rather on their backs.

[BigRedChief]

Q x 50The testimony just happened today, So nlm your Q

[BigRedChief]

He's a smart guy that worked his way up from relatively nothing.

He got greedy. So what?yeah smart guy. Hey this company has a pill that people will die without and they are selling it for $13.50? Lets take it over and fuck them on the price, $700+. they will pay it or die. Who cares either way, right?

[ThaVirus]

This guy was on the breakfast club the other day. He's been making a lot of waves in the rap community lately after buying a Wutang album for $2 million and making a video threatening to smack Ghostface Killah LMAO

I didn't watch the entire interview but he says he's from Brooklyn, modest beginnings. His parents were janitors. Now he's worth tens of millions. He came up.

But about hiking the drug price up, he claimed anyone who needs the drug but can't afford it is given it for free and actually over 2/3 of the drug that they "sell" are actually given away to those who can't pay.

Don't know how much of its true but, take it for what it's worth.

[BigRedChief]

But about hiking the drug price up, he claimed anyone who needs the drug but can't afford it is given it for free and actually over 2/3 of the drug that they "sell" are actually given away to those who can't pay.

Don't know how much of its true but, take it for what it's worth.Thats total BS. He is a liar. He refused to give out any for free.

Another company is now making the pill for $1.00.

[GloucesterChief]

I would take the 5th if I got called in front of Congress as well. Nothing good can come from talking to them. Just let them grandstand for the cameras and say nothing.

[hometeam]

He did a super cringe video threatening Ghostface Killah to delete his parts from that magical wu tang album or whatever. Dude is a total moron.

[BigRedChief]

I would take the 5th if I got called in front of Congress as well. Nothing good can come from talking to them. Just let them grandstand for the cameras and say nothing.Thats fine. It's the arrogance and smirking that is so much of who he is that upsets people....well that and he didn't care if people died if he didn't get more money part.............and then he threatened to destroy the only copy of a Wu Tang album out of spite. But, he is just misunderstood.

[TigeRRUppeRRcut]

1) Do you guys even know how many people actually rely on Daraprim each year?

2) Do you understand how much it costs to manufacture a drug like Daraprim for the # of people in question 1, which hasn't even been patent protected for decades ?

3) Do you even realize that there are cancer drugs out there that only extend life expectancy by a few months yet cost over $50,000 to buy but somehow this guy is the only one treated like a crook?

The real sharks are Merck, GSK, Pfizer, Regeneron, Novartis, Abbvie, Roche, Genentech who are making hundreds of billions and are deep in the pockets of these congressmen trying to crucify this guy.

People on medicaid ("poor people") can get this drug readily as the price was already negotiated. It's Medicare that will have to pay the higher price and those under that insurance are still going to get their drug. Most people don't even use this drug for more than one year...

Why the media has been fixated on this guy is beyond me. His company only has 1 drug which is far from "Big Pharma"

[GloucesterChief]

Thats fine. It's the arrogance and smirking that is so much of who he is that upsets people....well that and he didn't care if people died if he didn't get more money part.............and then he threatened to destroy the only copy of a Wu Tang album out of spite. But, he is just misunderstood.

I would totally blow off the blowhards and scumballs in Congress as well. I bet they have more blood on their hands then he does.

[TigeRRUppeRRcut]

I would take the 5th if I got called in front of Congress as well. Nothing good can come from talking to them. Just let them grandstand for the cameras and say nothing.

Reminds me of the House of Cards episode when Raymond Tusk pleads the fifth.

[NewChief]

Welcome to last year.

[NewChief]

And he, literally, says that he wants to be the "heel" of the human race. He has videos out there of him acting like a WWE heel and going off on people. It's really weird.

[sd4chiefs]

I think Trump has found his running mate.

[Gonzo]

Phuck big farma.

[ChiefAshhole1056]

He's a complete scumbag, but I will say he is going to be interesting to watch unfold going forward. He really is like a real-life super villain who was raised on WWE and just wants to be seen as the "bad guy"

[DaneMcCloud]

He's a smart guy that worked his way up from relatively nothing.

He got greedy. So what?

Discuss Troller

[KC native]

Yeah, I'm not sure why a guy about to go to prison thinks it's funny. But whatever.

How did a guy like this end up rising to a high position anyway? I'm guessing he stabbed everybody around him in the back multiple times.

He conned people into giving him money.

He lied about his hedge fund results and used that to keep raising more money. He then used his position at the pharma company (which was more like a hedge fund that a real pharma company) to pay off people in his hedge fund which is why he will be going to prison.

[Discuss Thrower]

Discuss Troller

He did his due diligence concerning the value of biotech companies and made himself and his employers millions of dollars.

Shkreli is outwardly a prick but he's done nothing illegal as it pertains to jacking up the price of one medicine. Him getting brought before members of Congress today was a complete farce unless he's followed tomorrow by C-level executives of every American pharmaceutical company.

[KC native]

He's a smart guy that worked his way up from relatively nothing.

He got greedy. So what?

The guy was a con man.

He misled investors about his investment results to raise money for his hedge fund. He then committed securities fraud and embezzled money to pay off investors in his hedge fund. Then he used the position at the first pharma company to get the second one because he did all kinds of shitty things to the first company.

[Discuss Thrower]

The guy was a con man.

He misled investors about his investment results to raise money for his hedge fund. He then committed securities fraud and embezzled money to pay off investors in his hedge fund. Then he used the position at the first pharma company to get the second one because he did all kinds of shitty things to the first company.

The uproar about Pharma Douche isn't about securities fraud though.

[KC native]

He did his due diligence concerning the value of biotech companies and made himself and his employers millions of dollars.

Shkreli is outwardly a prick but he's done nothing illegal as it pertains to jacking up the price of one medicine. Him getting brought before members of Congress today was a complete farce unless he's followed tomorrow by C-level executives of every American pharmaceutical company.

He isn't the first to do what he was doing. There are a few hedge funders who have bought/started pharma companies with the explicit purpose of buying old, popular drugs and dramatically hiking the price.

He's also under indictment for securities fraud.

[KC native]

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-martin-shkreli-securities-fraud/

Barely 23, he was managing hedge fund Elea Capital in New York and lost it all in 2007. Around then, a trade with Lehman Brothers ended with a $2.3 million judgment against him, prosecutors said. In 2010, he lost his clients’ $3 million investment in his new fund, MSMB Capital.

In 2011, he bet that shares of Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. would fall and wound up owing $7 million to his broker, Merrill Lynch, authorities said. He couldn’t pay, and he, an unnamed accomplice and MSMB Capital eventually extinguished the debt with a $1.35 million settlement, they said.

Part of that money came from his next firm, authorities said. After the collapse of MSMB Capital, Shkreli launched MSMB Healthcare with about $5 million from 13 investors. He paid himself “far in excess” of the agreed-upon 1 percent management fee and 20 percent profit incentive, according to the SEC.

Shkreli then used cash from MSMB Healthcare to invest in Retrophin, the pharmaceutical company he founded in 2011, even though it “had no products or assets,” prosecutors said. Later, he used the assets of Retrophin to repay angry investors in his hedge funds, prosecutors said..

[KC native]

The $45 million account he used to post bail is worth less than $5 million now because of KaloBios. He could be required to put up more collateral for his bond.

Dude is going to prison.

[listopencil]

The guy was a con man.

He misled investors about his investment results to raise money for his hedge fund. He then committed securities fraud and embezzled money to pay off investors in his hedge fund. Then he used the position at the first pharma company to get the second one because he did all kinds of shitty things to the first company.

I had heard that he boosted the price to generate revenue to pay for fucking over his previous financial deals. I didn't get very deeply into it. Just jacking the price up on meds for no reason other than making substantially more money seems like a scumbag move to me, even if this weren't about covering previous shady deals.

[Discuss Thrower]

He isn't the first to do what he was doing.

That's what I'm getting at. Shkreli getting singled out is a political dog and pony show.

[BigRedChief]

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-martin-shkreli-securities-fraud/

.Discuss Thrower?

Barely 23, he was managing hedge fund Elea Capital in New York and lost it all in 2007. Around then, a trade with Lehman Brothers ended with a $2.3 million judgment against him, prosecutors said. In 2010, he lost his clients’ $3 million investment in his new fund, MSMB Capital.

In 2011, he bet that shares of Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. would fall and wound up owing $7 million to his broker, Merrill Lynch, authorities said. He couldn’t pay, and he, an unnamed accomplice and MSMB Capital eventually extinguished the debt with a $1.35 million settlement, they said.

Part of that money came from his next firm, authorities said. After the collapse of MSMB Capital, Shkreli launched MSMB Healthcare with about $5 million from 13 investors. He paid himself “far in excess” of the agreed-upon 1 percent management fee and 20 percent profit incentive, according to the SEC.

Shkreli then used cash from MSMB Healthcare to invest in Retrophin, the pharmaceutical company he founded in 2011, even though it “had no products or assets,” prosecutors said. Later, he used the assets of Retrophin to repay angry investors in his hedge funds, prosecutors said.

[mdchiefsfan]

1) Do you guys even know how many people actually rely on Daraprim each year?

2) Do you understand how much it costs to manufacture a drug like Daraprim for the # of people in question 1, which hasn't even been patent protected for decades ?

3) Do you even realize that there are cancer drugs out there that only extend life expectancy by a few months yet cost over $50,000 to buy but somehow this guy is the only one treated like a crook?

The real sharks are Merck, GSK, Pfizer, Regeneron, Novartis, Abbvie, Roche, Genentech who are making hundreds of billions and are deep in the pockets of these congressmen trying to crucify this guy.

People on medicaid ("poor people") can get this drug readily as the price was already negotiated. It's Medicare that will have to pay the higher price and those under that insurance are still going to get their drug. Most people don't even use this drug for more than one year...

Why the media has been fixated on this guy is beyond me. His company only has 1 drug which is far from "Big Pharma"

This. I mean the dude is a douche bag, but he is the face of the pharmaceutical industry as it stands. There are others out there just like him. My step son's medication for ADHD, focalin, while being generic, costs $250 a month WITH health insurance. It would be $750 without. The entire industry is out of whack.

[BlackHelicopters]

What did he do wrong? Raise prices of his product? Capitalism.

[ChiliConCarnage]

What did he do wrong? Raise prices of his product? Capitalism.

Nothing in that sense but I think that's the question. Should it be legal? Die or pay me whatever amount I choose seems like it borders on extortion.

Things like this are why healthcare costs have been increasing so fast for decades and that's part of why wages are stagnant.

[ChiliConCarnage]

http://i.imgur.com/NN72L5F.gif

[BucEyedPea]

Repost- was done in political forum

[BucEyedPea]

What did he do wrong? Raise prices of his product? Capitalism.

From what was discussed in the DC forum—the pills are scarce.

[J Diddy]

Repost- was done in political forum

Some people don't like the political forum.

[oldman]

This little boy is nothing more than a thief and a liar. Unfortunately, his arrest for securities fraud will probably land him in a Club Fed rather than a real prison with a cellmate named Bull.
However, raising the price of a drug to outrageous amounts is something our friends at Pfizer, Bayer, and others have been doing for years. If Congress wants to make a point, they should be hauling execs for those companies in.

[RippedmyFlesh]

This little boy is nothing more than a thief and a liar. Unfortunately, his arrest for securities fraud will probably land him in a Club Fed rather than a real prison with a cellmate named Bull.
However, raising the price of a drug to outrageous amounts is something our friends at Pfizer, Bayer, and others have been doing for years. If Congress wants to make a point, they should be hauling execs for those companies in.

They may all do it but to me he was 95 on the highway while everyone else is doing 75. I hate the little prick just saying because everyone does it doesn't justify what he did.

[BlackHelicopters]

This little boy is nothing more than a thief and a liar. Unfortunately, his arrest for securities fraud will probably land him in a Club Fed rather than a real prison with a cellmate named Bull.
However, raising the price of a drug to outrageous amounts is something our friends at Pfizer, Bayer, and others have been doing for years. If Congress wants to make a point, they should be hauling execs for those companies in.

It is not mandatory to appear before Congress. Congress loves these glorified dog and pony shows . Shkreli did nothing wrong in raising his prices . He is in the right here. Now, if he used new investors to repay old investors, that is a potential ponzi scheme, and he could be inducted. Raising prices may have been greedy and heartless, but it was not illegal.

[jspchief]

It is not mandatory to appear before Congress. Congress loves these glorified dog and pony shows . Shkreli did nothing wrong in raising his prices . He is in the right here. Now, if he used new investors to repay old investors, that is a potential ponzi scheme, and he could be inducted. Raising prices may have been greedy and heartless, but it was not illegal.
Legal, but morally reprehensible.

Ironically, he may have brought enough attention to the issue to cause things to change. It's not like price gouging hasn't been addressed by laws in the past.

And just so we're clear, this isn't the same as big pharma. At least big pharma has the excuse of paying for R&D. This guy's company doesn't develop drugs. He just finds drugs with expired patents that have become so commonplace that other pharm companies are content to let it be. He finds legal loopholes to price gouge people.

[NinerDoug]

yeah smart guy. Hey this company has a pill that people will die without and they are selling it for $13.50? Lets take it over and **** them on the price, $700+. they will pay it or die. Who cares either way, right?

Not to defend him, he's obviously a scumbag of the nth degree. However, I would guess that soaking people paying cash for medicine was not what he had in mind. Soaking hospitals and insurance companies was the goal I'm sure.

[jspchief]

Not to defend him, he's obviously a scumbag of the nth degree. However, I would guess that soaking people paying cash for medicine was not what he had in mind. Soaking hospitals and insurance companies was the goal I'm sure.
You realize that means he is fucking all of us? Our taxes and insurance premiums are paying for his little business venture. Is that supposed to be better?

['Hamas' Jenkins]

This. I mean the dude is a douche bag, but he is the face of the pharmaceutical industry as it stands. There are others out there just like him. My step son's medication for ADHD, focalin, while being generic, costs $250 a month WITH health insurance. It would be $750 without. The entire industry is out of whack.

TBH, you probably need to talk to your pharmacist about finding ways to reduce your medication costs.

Simply looking up Focalin at GoodRx, you can get it for $40/month cash price at Walgreens and Rite-Aid

Many medications are simply expensive to manufacture. Purity standards for pharmaceuticals are higher than any other consumable product. For example, Focalin *must* be the d enantiomer. If you'd like, you can also speak to your practitioner and pharmacist about Ritalin, which is the same chemical compound, but not enantiomerically pure, and quite cheap as well.

[Hydrae]

Nothing in that sense but I think that's the question. Should it be legal? Die or pay me whatever amount I choose seems like it borders on extortion.

Things like this are why healthcare costs have been increasing so fast for decades and that's part of why wages are stagnant.

And ACA does not address this issue at all. It is this kind of thing that drove healthcare costs through the roof. The problem with healthcare in this country is not about people without insurance, it is with the rapid inflation in costs across the board in that industry. IMO obviously.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Not to defend him, he's obviously a scumbag of the nth degree. However, I would guess that soaking people paying cash for medicine was not what he had in mind. Soaking hospitals and insurance companies was the goal I'm sure.

There is no way that insurance wouldn't negotiate that price down to a fraction of what he wanted to charge.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Legal, but morally reprehensible.

Ironically, he may have brought enough attention to the issue to cause things to change. It's not like price gouging hasn't been addressed by laws in the past.

And just so we're clear, this isn't the same as big pharma. At least big pharma has the excuse of paying for R&D. This guy's company doesn't develop drugs. He just finds drugs with expired patents that have become so commonplace that other pharm companies are content to let it be. He finds legal loopholes to price gouge people.

This wasn't a commonplace drug. It was an orphan dug with an expired patent with a small patient population. Thus, he tried to price gouge a captive audience, like a ballpark beer vendor, but far more villainous.

[Sorter]

This wasn't a commonplace drug. It was an orphan dug with an expired patent with a small patient population. Thus, he tried to price gouge a captive audience, like a ballpark beer vendor, but far more villainous.

Get the fuck out of here with yo logic, homie.

[big nasty kcnut]

I'm for capitalism but not on drugs that can help someone with a terrible disease. Yeah fuck that guy. I hope he die in a fire while drinking anti freeze and then hit a aids tree that he can't afford to get the pills to help him because he's so broke.

[ModSocks]

I'm for capitalism but not on drugs that can help someone with a terrible disease. Yeah **** that guy. I hope he die in a fire while drinking anti freeze and then hit a aids tree that he can't afford to get the pills to help him because he's so broke.

Wow. I had no idea that aids pills grew from aids trees.

[suzzer99]

This guy was on the breakfast club the other day. He's been making a lot of waves in the rap community lately after buying a Wutang album for $2 million and making a video threatening to smack Ghostface Killah LMAO

I didn't watch the entire interview but he says he's from Brooklyn, modest beginnings. His parents were janitors. Now he's worth tens of millions. He came up.

But about hiking the drug price up, he claimed anyone who needs the drug but can't afford it is given it for free and actually over 2/3 of the drug that they "sell" are actually given away to those who can't pay.

Don't know how much of its true but, take it for what it's worth.

Right - he's mostly bilking the government piggy bank, not the consumer, which is how all the smart money is trying to get rich these days. Consumers are fickle, risky business. Govt has endless pockets and is easily bought off with relative chump change. This guy's only problem is he's being way too public/douchey and not playing the game right.

That said, if some kind of real drug pricing reform comes out of this (like the govt can now negotiate with drug companies on Medicare pt. D prices) - this guy will be an accidental hero.

[BlackHelicopters]

This guy may be morally questionable, but raising prices is not illegal.

[BlackHelicopters]

Are we going to legislate morality further?

[suzzer99]

Nothing in that sense but I think that's the question. Should it be legal? Die or pay me whatever amount I choose seems like it borders on extortion.

Things like this are why healthcare costs have been increasing so fast for decades and that's part of why wages are stagnant.

Perfect example of why a pure free market in healthcare is a terrible idea.

[jspchief]

Are we going to legislate morality further?
Of course not. Only the rich should be able to afford to live healthy lives.

[jspchief]

This wasn't a commonplace drug. It was an orphan dug with an expired patent with a small patient population. Thus, he tried to price gouge a captive audience, like a ballpark beer vendor, but far more villainous.
Yeah "commonplace" maybe wasn't an accurate description, but it doesn't change the point. He's not a pharmacy company that researches and develops drugs. He's taking advantage of a flaw in the patent system. It's price gouging.

[RobBlake]

This guy may be morally questionable, but raising prices is not illegal.

thats disgusting

[DaneMcCloud]

This guy may be morally questionable, but raising prices is not illegal.

There should be a special room in hell for those who profit egregiously from human suffering

[RobBlake]

There should be a special room in hell for those who profit egregiously from human suffering

but hey, money is more important that human lives... can't save everrrryone.

[Eleazar]

Are we going to legislate morality further?

All legislation is an attempt to impose some form of morality on others.

[hometeam]

Are we going to legislate morality further?

Legislating morality is the bulk of all law~

[splatbass]

He's a smart guy that worked his way up from relatively nothing.

He got greedy. So what?

He put lives at risk, that is what.

[splatbass]

Shkreli is outwardly a prick but he's done nothing illegal as it pertains to jacking up the price of one medicine.

A thing can be legal, but still not morally right.

[splatbass]

Not to defend him, he's obviously a scumbag of the nth degree. However, I would guess that soaking people paying cash for medicine was not what he had in mind. Soaking hospitals and insurance companies was the goal I'm sure.

Which raises the cost of health insurance and health care for all of us. Soaking people indirectly is still soaking people.

[splatbass]

Are we going to legislate morality further?

When it puts lives at risk, yes.

[mdchiefsfan]

TBH, you probably need to talk to your pharmacist about finding ways to reduce your medication costs.

Simply looking up Focalin at GoodRx, you can get it for $40/month cash price at Walgreens and Rite-Aid

Many medications are simply expensive to manufacture. Purity standards for pharmaceuticals are higher than any other consumable product. For example, Focalin *must* be the d enantiomer. If you'd like, you can also speak to your practitioner and pharmacist about Ritalin, which is the same chemical compound, but not enantiomerically pure, and quite cheap as well.

That is for the regular tablets. He takes the XR, and is prescribed 2 X 30mg/ day.

[Squalor2]

Former Wall street wunderkid now up on charges of inside trading.

Daraprim, which went from costing $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill when he tool over the company, is used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic condition that can occur in pregnant women and people with the HIV virus.

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YmmKj7-O3Kk" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>


two separate charges. insider trading probably. buying a product and cutting costs is dressage for profit. it's not about the consumer...

[ILChief]

Sounds like a good target for Anonymous

[Kman34]

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YmmKj7-O3Kk" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

No matter the argument over this guy is......he just has a face I would love to punch.....

[scho63]

I may be the only one here that thinks this way but i was actually laughing at how was he was being so disrespectful to those pompous ass grandstanding congressman who all they wanted to do was to show off with their typical bloviating. I'm surprised he didn't pull the famous "Kelce hand gesture at the ref" move.

I certainly don't agree with what he did with the drug prices but is it any wonder why Congress has an approval rating lower than Hitler?