Martin Shkreli is still a dick

[josieposy]

www.businessinsider.com/why-martin-shkreli-hiked-drug-price-2015-10


It's been about three weeks since Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli announced he'd lower the price of his drug Daraprim.

And so far, that hasn't happened. So we called Shkreli up to learn a little more about what the company's been up to since they came under fire for jacking up their drug price from $13.50 to $750. What he said didn't assure us that a change in price would come any time soon.

"I said that it would take a long amount of time to figure out how and when to lower the price," Shkreli said, in reference to his interview with ABC News when he first announced he'd cut the cost of Daraprim in response to public outcry over the hike.

Shkreli said his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, wants to reevaluate is how much of a demand there is for Daraprim before they lower to price. The drug is currently used to treat malaria and toxoplasmosis, an infection that's extrememly harmful for people with weakened immune systems such as people with AIDS and cancer.

"Until we figure out demand, we won’t lower the price." he said. "We have to find a safe price to lower it to."

And once Turing settles on a lower price, it might not be as low as some are calling for. It likely won't be anywhere near what the original price was before the hike, Shkreli said.

Turing Pharmaceutical is not the only company that has jacked up the price of an off-patent drug: Pharma giants Pfizer, Merck, and Valeant have all come under fire for similar stunts.

"There have been hundreds of companies that have raised [their drug prices] higher, and they’re not rolling back their prices, so why should we?"

[YeahSure]

I knew he wouldn't. If he had planned on it, he would have done it immediately.