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Interviews: Ask Martin Shkreli a Question
Martin Shkreli has agreed to answer your questions. Shkreli is the co-founder of the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management, the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of the biotechnology firm Retrophin, and the founder and former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. Shkreli has been active on Twitter about a wide range of topics, including the 2016 presidential election. Most recently, he expressed interest in buying 4chan.
Ask him your questions here, and we'll post the full interview with Shkreli's answers in the near future.
Ask him your questions here, and we'll post the full interview with Shkreli's answers in the near future.
How about you don't give the self important asshole more time in the public eye instead?
Dear Mr. Shkreli, if you got rectal cancer, would it affect your entire body?
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
When did you first discover that you are a raging douche and why did you decide to embrace it?
Follow-up question: Were you born that way or did you have to work at it?
Why are you encouraging this talentless, odious shit with this sort of coverage?
This is the same question I would ask.
Better known as “Pharmabro” or let’s increase costs of old meds by 5000%.
This a new low, /. Not even offering to bail out 4chan should elevate this piece of garbage to “stuff that matters.”
My only question would be, “Why haven’t you stopped breathing my oxygen yet?”
Apparently new /. media company is finding new ways to outdo the old one. Have a nice life.
Err, that was supposed to be Dear Mr., not Dr.
Slashdot hits a new all-time low. Again.
I won't have anything to do with that guy, and shame on Slashdot for providing a platform to him.
In as much detail you care to provide, how did you get where you are today?
Interpret that as you will.
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
You! Yes, you! You there, about the press the "Reply" button - think about what you're doing.
Chances are you want to ask Martin Shkreli why he's such an utterly foul piece of human excrement - of course you do, it's what we're all thinking - but what will it achieve? I'm happy to see that the users of Slashdot have already asked this question several times, so that ground has been covered.
So what can you do? My suggestion is: nothing. Don't hit Reply. Don't ask a question. Shkreli didn't get to be King of the Douchebags by having a thin skin, but if anything's going to wound him... it's nothing. No responses. No-one caring. No-one even expressing their disdain for him.
So how about it? Just close the tab, and move on. Do more for the good of humanity than Martin Shkreli ever will simply by sitting on your arse and doing nothing. It's the right thing to (not) do.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Who's your daddy and what does he do?
How does it feel to be so hated that even Donald Trump won't accept your endorsement (though he's fine with David Duke and Vladimir Putin endorsing him)?
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
How did you become such a successful and well respected member of society?
Why are you giving this worthless piece of shit the time of day?
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
What has this person done of note, other than charge lots of money for a product? I imagine some here will try to be civil, and ask him a serious question, but why? He is not a remarkable person, so please do not treat him as such. I know, I know, everyone is interesting in their own way, but then, we might as well interview a stomped cockroach on Slashdot next.
I agree with you. Shkreli is a fine, upstanding person. Also, TRUMP 2016!
Should compulsory licensing of all medicines be the norm rather than the exception and drug patents be banned. All drug research is based on basic research funded by the NSF so it does not seem fair that Pharma companies get to make the large profits based on doing the last 30% of the journey of bringing a drug to market. A reasonable 50% profit margin over manufacturing costs and a one time bounty based on the importance of the drug should be enough Profit motive .
Such bounties could be announced in advance like the Ansari prizes
This would refocus the Pharma industry from just trying to make money and instead on treating sickness.
It would also make it unattractive for Wall Street Assholes to come to the Pharma Industry and the Scientists could work in peace.
**Life is too short to be serious**
But it can be summed up with one:
"How much for you to kill yourself? Maybe if we all chip in, we could get rid of you."
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
And how much money could change your mind?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Money. Duh. Next question?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
He might be charismatic, but he's definitely not likeable. Anyone who does the shit he has should not be liked in any way. He's a piece of shit who is literally profiting on people's misery and misfortune.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Martin,
Is all of the irrational hatred you receive as a result of drawing attention to how the medical industry reconciles drug patents and generics with the FDA worth it? People who read past "ZOMG PRICE HIKE" learned that the FDA makes the process to genericize drugs like Daraprim harder than it should be. The idea being that perhaps if the FDA wasn't so obstructionist the market on Daraprim would never have been cornered in the first place.
Follow-up: What's it like to be so based?
What do you want with it? Any changes planned if you acquire it? PS. Do it, I'm interested in the outcome
What if all of Slashdot refused to ask this guy any serious questions?
I think we should refuse...he priced-gouged lifesaving medicines...he's not some fun trickster he's a villain pure and simple.
I think what he did should be criminal.
Let's ask him things like, "When do you think you'll finally go to jail?"
or, "Have you been examined by a mental health professional for narcissistic personality disorder?"
Thank you Dave Raggett
What you did makes me want to bash your skull in. Whether it was lawful or not, whether it adheres to capitalist principles or not, it takes QUITE an amount of egoism and delusions of grandeur to pull that off without losing sleep.
So my question is this: If you think basic human ethics don't apply to you, why should I not come over there, kick your teeth to the curb and take from you whatever I damn well please?
I'm done, 16 years reading with this site & about the last 2 debating whether its worth my time. Thanks for putting the nail in the coffin.
n/t
Are they rose tinted, or do they smell like the rotted ass of a dead cow, much like your personality?
Place something witty here
Please learn to spell first. "Morales' is a Spanish surname, and you're means you are.
I posted an honest question in a non-inflammatory way, and it's already gotten downvoted, but I'm holding out hope.
I've seen a lot of crazed capitalists like himself have a somewhat consistent internal world view so I'm curious as to how he thinks his entire pricing situation is *supposed* to work. Clearly he fucked over people who were totally powerless but did he think the free market meant they could actually do something about it?
Basically: Does he think everybody is as unethical as him, and hence assumes we're all playing the game the same way he is?
What is the ethical system that guides you?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
He is only successful because of a set of byzantine laws that force Americans to pay 10 or 20 times more for drugs than what they cost in other first world countries.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Hey Martin, what do you think of Obamacare, and if anything what would you fix about it? Would you repeal it outright? What does america really need to fix about healthcare?
What is the "other" doing in that sentence? It does not belong there.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Are you just trolling? Is there a Neo-Nazi Pepe hiding at the end of the rainbow?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Why would you want to give this bag of dicks any attention at all?
If this is the type of stunts you plan on pulling with your new management then It may be time to delete my account.
Why would you think we care what that waste of oxygen has to say?
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Martin,
I was offered an opportunity to write an essay on pharmaceutical pricing, so I jumped at the chance to advocate for an unpopular opinion supporting free-market based pricing.
I want to make this interesting for you. I've watched many of your debates on YouTube where ignorant college students ask rude questions and express ignorant opinions. I'm going to try to do better:
Question 1: You've become an overnight household name as a consequence of a manufactured controversy. Since then, you've managed to grow a cult-following by engaging the controversy rather than hiding from the attention. Do you enjoy your new celebrity status enough to justify the headaches the media attention has brought you?
Question 2: Prescription drug prices don't seem to follow the same price trends as most other consumer commodities. Can you cast some insight into the process of pricing a prescription medication? Do you have any thoughts on the fairness of the perception that drug prices are excessively volatile? Is this perception deserved? In either case, what are some of the underlying causes behind prescription drug price volatility?
Question 3: Do you believe the environment for pricing pharmaceuticals in the United States is optimal, or favorable to innovation and research that best benefits patients?
Question 4: You've frequently expressed your desire to invest more money in researching new treatments and cures for diseases. What changes or reforms to the United States healthcare industry and relevant regulations would be most effective in maximizing health outcomes for patients?
Question 5: What is the single most counterproductive aspect of the United States legal and regulatory structure surrounding health care and drug research?
Question 6: In most colleges, the computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering departments are awash with student interest in these majors. Do you feel that the healthcare industry is suffering from a "brain drain" or talent-loss as a result of differences in perceived profitability and ROI for those education dollars? If so: do you expect the common desire to found a Silicon Valley "Unicorn" startup could be redirected to inspire those students to research treatments for diseases if the government changed its approach to healthcare regulations?
Question 7: In my biology class, I learned that there are many sponges in the mediterranean which appeared to offer opportunities to research new antibiotics. The academic who was researching these sponges lamented about a lack of interest from the pharmaceutical industry in researching new antibiotics because the ones we had now worked "well enough". When I encounter news stories like this: http://www.newsweek.com/2016/09/23/bashar-al-assads-war-syria-could-spell-end-antibiotics-498035.html I'm left with some level of dissonance between two anecdotes which seem impossible to reconcile. Clearly, victims of war are not especially well-equipped to vote with their dollars, but this alleged lack of interest in researching new antibiotics seems endemic of a more systemic issue. Do you believe the search for new antibiotics deserves more research funding than they currently receive? Is there a hype-gap between the threat of antibiotic resistance being portrayed in the media and the risk antibiotic resistance actually poses? Do you believe that antibiotic research funding reflects an appropriate priority level relative to the risk these superbugs pose?
Question 8: Antibiotic resistant tuberculosis is alleged to be a growing problem in some developing countries such as India. Do you believe that this would be less of a problem if generic drugs were unavailable? Would increasing the supply of "affordable antibiotics" likely make this problem better, or worse? Is it hopeless to attack a public health problem by manipulating drug prices, when the core issue is malinvestment in sanitation infrastructure?
Sorry for the long list! Huge fan!
Respectfully,
Hogan
I think almost everyone would care, they'd rejoice in the streets, parades would be had, there would be people lined up for hundreds of miles to urinate on his grave.
... and let me punch your smug little face over and over again?
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
The answer to this is publicly available. He bought it to "keep it from the people" in response to a crowdfunding campaign to buy the record and release it to the public, and as such has no plans to release it himself.
It also seems he has no plans to improve his public image, quite the opposite.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Do you get a lot of death threats?
I am genuinely curious. As a person of normal to modest means, I receive no threats, have never been robbed as it is obvious I have nothing worth stealing, and otherwise do not live in fear. Do you? Please explain a little what it's like and how you deal with the negative reaction of society at large aims at you.
Will you raise the cost of membership to $25,000, like you do with everything else you buy?
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
I think that wonkey_monkey's post above describing why not posting in this thread is a good course of action has sound reasoning, but I will reply to second your point.
Slashdot, cancel this Q&A, do not submit these questions to him. In fact, if this whole article were deleted I wouldn't complain.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Did the FBI seize the Wu-Tang album and do you know if Bill Murray has any plans to pull off a heist and steal it from them?
Emacs or vi, you excrement-coated human enema nozzle?
That is all.
Yes, everyone loves to hate on this guy, partly because of the obnoxious persona he presents. However, if you actually follow the guy closely, his heart is in the right place with regard to curing rare diseases. So here goes: 1) What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs? Are there any particular lessons you had to learn the hard way? 2) Are you interested in treating/curing senile diseases and ways to significantly extend human life? 3) What role, if any, do you think the government should play in pharmaceutical industry, as well as healthcare as a whole? 4) When can we expect Harambe to live again?
All this anger, but my understand of him price gouging, is that he was gouging the government and the insurance companies. Can anyone link actual research that shows that actual american humans either A) went without medicine or B) were refused the free medicines his company offered to the patients who were unable to procure the medicine through their insurance company?
This kid is made out to be a terrible human, because of his douchbaggery towards the government, and we hate him WHY?!
Here is what I recommend you tell Mr. Shkreli:
"We are sorry, Mr. Shkreli, but an overwhelming number of our readers have asked us to cancel our planned question-and-answer session with you. Accordingly, we have decided not to submit any questions to you. You can read the discussion that lead to this decision here."
I am not too sure about that. Cartman being so nice and Kyle's dad so bad? Something smells fishy.
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
Do you know the difference between a ham sandwich and being stuffed facefirst into a mound of elephant dung?
Followup: Wanna have lunch at the zoo?
The woman who had pledged to donate to the college fund for the son of your late PR consultant in exchange for the chance to punch you in the face reneged on the deal. How much would we have to raise in funding to let one of the current world boxing champions take that shot?
"Morales" is usually someone's name, like Miles Morales (originally the Marvel Comics character Ultimate Spider-Man.)
"Morals" are codes of conduct or ethics.
Galaga, I agree completely.
And to Slashdot Mods and community members, this is the first time I can say in my 16-year membership here at Slashdot that I can say I'm honestly disappointed in its behavior. What I'm seeing displayed here is a mob-mentality peer censorship at play. And while I do not disagree one iota that this man does not deserve the criticism he receives on a daily basis from the public for what he has done, I think it's a rare and unique opportunity that we can actually engage in discussion with this man. He is a quintessential example of the dangers of capitalism, and I have no doubt that he would sell you the rope you would use to hang him with if he could. ** Understanding his mentality can be incredibly beneficial to our society and our community, and I urge you all to exercise a more civil attitude towards this interview.
Or, to put it another, more blunt way: Don't let this man drag you down to his level. He'll beat you with experience, and we're better than that.
** To inject a little humor into the conversation, if he did sell you something to hang him with, he'd probably insist on using this.
Why did you steal money from Retrophin to pay off investors in your failed hedge fund?
Follow up question, How much will you enjoy prison? After all they like assholes in prison.
There is absolutely no good reason to give this person a voice. He is horrible, he didn't even deny it. Then luckily for us, he got arrested. We should instead focus on what to do to prevent his sort of asinine behavior in the future, as we merely got lucky this time.
How exactly are we going to prevent this sort of scum from jacking the price of life saving drugs, particularly those that impact a larger portion of the population. (epipen?)
If someone were to tie a noose around your neck, tie the other end to the trailer hitch of a pickup truck, and then drag your body through the street until there was nothing left but a skull with a few clumps of meat hanging from it, should the truck be a Chevy or a Ford? Or would you go with Toyota?
Breakfast served all day!
If the role of money is to equate the work of the candlestick maker to the work of the accountant to the work of the airline pilot... and the amount of pay is proportionate to the contribution to society (rough jobs pay more, easy jobs pay less), how do you deserve such a salary? Is it really brilliant to buy a company and jack the prices up when that causes pain to the society that would reward you so?
Time for a new Political party in the US (or two!) One is off the rails Other cant pony up a leader.
Many music lovers applaud your work preventing the undoubtedly terrible Wu-Tang album from reaching the airwaves. Would you consider a similar effort for Kanye's upcoming release? It appears Kanye will want significantly more money. How would you feel about collaborating with other music fans, perhaps with a gofundme campaign?
Honestly I don't even know why I'm asking. There's about as much chance of these being answered as there was with SCO CEO guy. What was his name again? I don't even remember. I expect unpronounceable last name guy will be equally as memorable.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
-1 off topic... Because this shitpost has nothing to do with /. editors/ownership right? pfft. I think I'm right on topic.
Were you born without a soul, or did you lose it in a deal with a well dressed gentleman with horns and a tail?
(Replying O/T to post this as close to the top as possible)
To help express that Slashdot should not go forward with this interview, tag the article "cancel" until it's the top tag. Thank you and don't reply with a question for the Q&A.
Here's how you can break the cancellation to him.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I don't know the Bill Gates you're referring to. The one I know is an asshole, with an ego on par with Ellison's. But yeah, he helps people
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
The media portrays your personality to be one of an ego maniacal sociopath. Please understand this is not me calling you a name or attempting to label you. My opinions are reserved from this until I've been able to hear from both sides. I can imagine that you may have something you would like to say or address about the overall negativity media expresses toward your character before people adjudicate personal bias toward it.
If this actually goes through slashdot parent company should donate all ad revenue to a charity the day they post that story.
Which case is it, USA v. Shkreli Case "1:15-cr-00637" or "1:15-cr-00637-KAM"?
Any chance you would share the court records with us? It seems that the only "public records" I can find are behind a lawyer only pay wall
http://www.plainsite.org/docke...
Unfortunately one needs either a PACER or PainSite.com login account just to check in on how you are doing.
Here,
let me save us all the trouble:
Question 1: You've become an overnight household name as a consequence of a manufactured controversy. Since then, you've managed to grow a cult-following by engaging the controversy rather than hiding from the attention. Do you enjoy your new celebrity status enough to justify the headaches the media attention has brought you?
"On the advice of counsel I invoke my 5th amendment privilege against self incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question."
Question 2: Prescription drug prices don't seem to follow the same price trends as most other consumer commodities. Can you cast some insight into the process of pricing a prescription medication? Do you have any thoughts on the fairness of the perception that drug prices are excessively volatile? Is this perception deserved? In either case, what are some of the underlying causes behind prescription drug price volatility?
"On the advice of counsel I invoke my 5th amendment privilege against self incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question."
Question 3: Do you believe the environment for pricing pharmaceuticals in the United States is optimal, or favorable to innovation and research that best benefits patients?
"On the advice of counsel I invoke my 5th amendment privilege against self incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question."
Question 4: You've frequently expressed your desire to invest more money in researching new treatments and cures for diseases. What changes or reforms to the United States healthcare industry and relevant regulations would be most effective in maximizing health outcomes for patients?
"On the advice of counsel I invoke my 5th amendment privilege against self incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question."
Question 5: What is the single most counterproductive aspect of the United States legal and regulatory structure surrounding health care and drug research?
"On the advice of counsel I invoke my 5th amendment privilege against self incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question."
Question 6: In most colleges, the computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering departments are awash with student interest in these majors. Do you feel that the healthcare industry is suffering from a "brain drain" or talent-loss as a result of differences in perceived profitability and ROI for those education dollars? If so: do you expect the common desire to found a Silicon Valley "Unicorn" startup could be redirected to inspire those students to research treatments for diseases if the government changed its approach to healthcare regulations?
"On the advice of counsel I invoke my 5th amendment privilege against self incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question."
Question 7: In my biology class, I learned that there are many sponges in the mediterranean which appeared to offer opportunities to research new antibiotics. The academic who was researching these sponges lamented about a lack of interest from the pharmaceutical industry in researching new antibiotics because the ones we had now worked "well enough". When I encounter news stories like this: http://www.newsweek.com/2016/0... I'm left with some level of dissonance between two anecdotes which seem impossible to reconcile. Clearly, victims of war are not especially well-equipped to vote with their dollars, but this alleged lack of interest in researching new antibiotics seems endemic of a more systemic issue. Do you believe the search for new antibiotics deserves more research funding than they currently receive? Is there a hype-gap between the threat of antibiotic resistance being portrayed in the media and the risk antibiotic resistance actually poses? Do you believe that antibiotic research funding reflects an appropriate priority level relative to the ris
Excuse me Ordirules, didn't you know that Slashdot is a safe space now? Obviously these guys have all been triggered super hard by Martin Shkreli and want to censor him to protect their feelings. Guaranteed some of the same posters are people who use the word "SJW" seriously.
How do you manage to sleep at night?
Do you need to take prescription sleeping pills? Have they had any price increases in the several thousand percent range?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
+1 for this question. I'm genuinely interested in reading his response to it.
I like him too.
Mr. Shkreli. Why are you interested in 4chan? Do you plan to turn the free 4chan image boards into a '$500 members only' imageboard ?
He'll just plead the 5th on all questions.
You seemed to be all about listening to Slashdot when you first bought the site. You may have really really misread the site with this one. I urge you to contact Shkreli and say that Slashdot doesn't actually want anything to do with you and send him a poster size printout of goatse.cx signed 4chan for good measure.
The absolute asshurt in this article is hilarious. Actual questions getting modded as troll, crying and screaming and "lol kill urself!" getting modded to +5.
Crying and screaming to not give him attention, yet that is exactly what you're doing by crying and screaming about it.
Any hobbies or interests that spark your imagination?
Twinstiq, game news
When Frodo threw the ring into the lava, wasn't he supposed to die?
No.
This is why people give money to charity - to buy a good name for themselves after a lifetime of being a huge turd.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Your "shitpost" is inaccurate and off topic. Take the hiatus.
How much of your company's income is being spent on R&D? What are the industry rates of spend on R&D into new medicine versus advertising and lobbying and where does your company sit within this area? Compared with say GSK or Bayer, how does your company compared on R&D spend?
1. Mr. Shkreli, how do you ethically justify to yourself a greater than 5000% price hike on medicines that are literally saving peoples lives?
2. To Slashdot's editors: how do you ethically justify giving this scumbag free screen time like this?
Instead of the usual "How do you live with yourself," I want to know more about the environment and culture on your world.
How do you deal with the incredible heat, the pure hydrogen sulfide atmosphere and the constant pitchfork jabs from the native capriform humanoids? Is it true that the Internet provider is Comcast, and what's the broadband speed like? When you visit our world, do they make you fly Spirit?
Frankly, his post is spot on. Youve really screwed the pooch.
With all of the recent events around racial discrimination, how have you been dealt with discrimination as a Ferengi?
Your original comment was completely inaccurate and off topic, and it got modded down. If anything, people have been driven away by comments like yours that are based on no fact and prompted by a knee jerk reaction to a story or interview you don't like.
Ask him if he could eat poop and die please.
(If at first you don't succeed, do it different next time!)
You seem acquainted with internet subcultures. This suggests you may have a Slashdot ID and are perhaps even a regular poster. If so, what is your ID? Promise I won't tell you weasel of a little bitch.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
Unless you're talking about Morales. Maybe know what you're talking about before you blow hot air. http://www.dictionary.com/brow...
See subject.
"Were you born with such a smug punchable face or did you pay good money for it being the spoiled worthless poser rich boy that you are?"
"Is your douchebaggery the result of a dismissive neglectful father and lack of attention or did you just grow into it without outside influence?"
"Have you ever had a clinical diagnosis for Antisocial Personality Disorder (sociopathy) or any other interesting cluster B personality disorders?"
"Do you want to buy 4chan because you enjoy the lack of empathy displayed by the user base? Would you hate to lose one of the only communities you can identify with?"
All in all, I hope someone buys 4chan. I find it entertaining from time to time. I'd hate to see it go to this fuckstick though as he'd just drive the trolls toward less insane communities throughout the net when he decides he wants it to actually make money.
I don't care if this spiel is "wholly warranted reprimand" or "obliviously blind to reality", I just came by to say I found the sheer intensity of it refreshing. Karkat incarnate, in the last place I expected to educe Homestuck.
Could you comment (in regards to the exclusive album created for you by the Wu-tang Clan) on the urban legend that if Bill Murray steals the recording in a heist he can then release the recording to the world.
... would you shave its butt and teach it to walk backwards?
"I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
Wow, that's a lot of pitchforks, Slashdot.
Let's take a deep breath for a second and talk about what Shkreli is doing. If you take him at his word, and I do, he is interested in the niche market of pharmaceuticals for rare diseases. In the case of Daraprim (the drug he increased to $750 per pill), it cures Toxoplasmosis. Only a couple thousand people get Toxoplasmosis each year, which might not sound like a small number, except that Daraprim cures it after one regimen.
Daraprim has the market cornered not because the FDA is slow to approve alternatives, but because companies don't give a shit about a drug that sells a couple hundred thousand pills per year. Daraprim has been the drug for 75 years. There has been no innovation, and luckily there have been no mutations that have made Daraprim ineffective. If there had been, those couple thousands of people would just die each year, because it's unlikely anyone would invest R&D into developing a new drug. Even so, Shkreli believes Daraprim is not that great and he can do better.
Shkreli's theory is that you can actually make money in the rare drug business and that it's morally right to do so (and morally wrong to ignore these patients just because their disease is too rare to be a worthwhile market). He raised money on this theory, bought Daraprim, and increased the price *to insurers* as planned to make the acquisition worthwhile and fund the development of a better drug for Toxoplasmosis.
Does this mean anyone is paying $750 per pill out-of-pocket? No.
Does this mean hospitals are paying $750 per pill to stock the drug? No. Almost all hospitals pay somewhere around $1 per pill.
Does this mean people without insurance are screwed? No. Shkreli gives away the pills to these people as inexpensively as he is legally allowed to (I can't remember if that's free or if he is required to sell it for what he charges the hospitals, but in either case it's as cheap as he's allowed to make it.)
Is $750 per pill a large amount for a rare-disease cure? Absolutely not. It's small relative to many other drugs with even larger markets.
Does this mean our insurance rates go up? In theory, yes. That is what insurance is for. You pay a little bit more than your expected benefit (probability X $amount) in order to cap your downside risk. In this case, the diseases are so incredibly rare that its contribution to your health insurance premium is not measurable.
Shkreli's point is that areas of the rare disease pharma market are not functioning, and he believes he can make them function. In this case, that means these drugs are mis-priced.
For someone to be controversial, there has to be two sides. Reading the comments here, there is clear universal hatred for Shkreli. That is not controversy and suggests that people here have not spent any time trying to understand what Shrkeli is doing. It doesn't mean you have to agree with it.
> Clearly he fucked over people who were totally powerless
Is this clear to you? It isn't clear to me. I think you're referring to people who get Toxoplasmosis, and if so you're simply uninformed. They don't pay anything for Daraprim. Their insurance company pays for the drug, and if they have no insurance they get it for free (or $1; can't remember). In theory this does increase insurance premiums, but we are only talking about 2,000 patients per year each taking something like 80 pills before cured. So, the apportioned cost of your Internet connection during the time you are complaining about Shkreli is many many times more than any theoretical increase in your health insurance premium from the Daraprim price increase.
Who is Martin Shkreli?
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
So we ask, Martin Shkreli, why are you such a douche?
It was the ONLY chance he had of tricking a skank into letting him inside a real vagina....
What does he know about making yourself useful?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You justify your absurd Price Hiking of critical medications on the grounds that it is the Government and the Insurance companies that pay those hikes, not the consumer. However this argument is ultimately a semantic one: Gouging the Insurers, especially medical insurers, is what has led to a health insurance crisis in the first place. All insurance cost is, sooner or later, passed on to the consumer in premium, no sane, solvent insurer sells insurance (over the long term) for less money than they make in premium they take in, and profit on how they invest it. So when you gouge insurers, best case scenario is that you are hiking insurance prices to all consumers. When you gouge the government, that means you are gouging the tax payer, you are leaching tax money that could ultimately be spent on other programmes. I recognise your stated desire to invest this money in R&D. Laudable in theory, but in practice, what you are actually saying is, you want to do R&D, but you aren’t good enough, or promising enough, to get grants or investment, so instead you are going to gouge taxpayers and anyone who purchases medical insurance on essential drugs in the hopes of raising enough money to fund Research that no experts, investment firms or governments have seen anything promising in. Now independent research is fine and well and good, and governments and investors can be short-sighted, or outright contradictory in their desires and goals. But if you aren’t good enough to interest anyone at all in funding this research, or confident enough to put your own money into it, then why should people not be angry at what amounts to, at the least; profiteering?
I don't guess there's any point in asking him how he got such a punchable face.
If you are making a South Park reference, I don't get it. Otherwise, what?! Well, if you are a nice single woman around my age, not completely crazy, currently located near my town and who has always dreamt about meeting a guy exactly like me, I might consider accepting your invitation :)
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
How did you find your first investors? What did you do to secure an initial meeting. what was the initial contact method?
I see it going something like this:
Remember folks, always use a condom
That's how we lost Freddy Mercury
And it's how we got Martin Shkrelli
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
being such a weasel and all...
Quit disrspecting weasels, They are cute fuzzy things, and Shkreli is an asshole.
Oh wait, there I went and disrespected assholes.
Are oyu serious Slashdot? Asking perhaps the most deservedly hated man in America to answer questions from some of the most rowdy nerds on the planet? Whatever could go wrong?
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
1. You don't know who or why I was down voted. It is not a qualification. You could have done it and you probably did.
2. Slashdot is hardly conservative whatever that is supposed to be... its a tech site... so they're going to be more on the forward looking edge of society than most people.
3. As to the Conservatives liking the ACA... you're conflating the state based Romney care system with the federal based Obama care... the conservatives did not write Obama care and it only passed through congress because the democrats had a majority in both houses... and even then the democrats had to hide the bill from their own members. Aka you need to pass the bill to see what is in the bill. The bill is not popular with either political party at this point in the US. Its just a question of where to now?
Really all your post demonstrated is that you're so wildly butt hurt about getting serial spanked by me that you're going to make these frankly ego boosting fail troll attacks on me. Notice how I don't do this to anyone on slashdot? I know you know because you read every thing I post e-stalker style. Notice how all I do is respond to an article or a question... and throw in my two cents and then leave? But you. Look at yourself. And you think that by THIS behavior you're hurting me? I mean... how triggered are you by reality?
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
... to make you become such a flaming asshole?
So, you're one of those sad basement dwelling Bernie voters that Hillary was talking about... aren't you?
Admit it.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
I would like to know why he keeps starting new biotech companies ?
So ... the answer to my question is "yes". Knew it.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
We? That would be you and as many fingers as you can count before you get confused?
You argue against me using the anon tag... you do that because you're trying to hide that you're just the same retard every time. Your problem is that you're very distinctive in the way you type your stupid insult laden posts. Thus your attempt to make yourself appear to be multiple people fails.
When did I pick you up out of curiosity? It would be funny to know what triggered you so hard you decided to debase yourself to this extent.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
When you do nothing but play dumb the net result is that you're behaving like an idiot.
Just saying... if you don't ever cut to clever you never leave dumb. :wink:
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.