Remember our good friend Martin Shkreli? The infamous pharmaceutical CEO who purchased the patent to the drug Daraprim in August. This medication treats parasitic infections that affect babies, pregnant women as well as patients with AIDS and certain types of cancer. After owning the patent for only a couple of weeks, Shkreli raised the price of one tablet from $13.50 to $750, a ridiculous 5,455 percent increase.
The Internet eviscerated Shkreli for his loathsome greed, and he quickly became the most hated person on the entire planet for about a week. Since then we have seen what kind of character that Martin has. His blind confidence and sense of entitlement saw him offer $10,000 to his ex-girlfriend to eat her out.
In September, Shkreli offered a $2,700 donation to Bernie Sanders, but the presidential candidate declined the offer. Instead he gave the money to a Washington health clinic. That did not please the privileged former hedge fund manager with very questionable practices.
SO ANGRY AT @BernieSanders I COULD PUNCH A WALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 18, 2015
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OH NO! MARTIN DON’T DO IT!
Ugh, does anyone know how to treat a wrist fracture without going to a hospital?
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 18, 2015
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OH THE HUMANITY! I COULD HAVE NEVER FORESEEN THIS CATASTROPHE!
@crabioscar yeah and now one bone is sticking out
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 18, 2015
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SAY IT ISN’T SO!!!
This is such bullshit. pic.twitter.com/t0Hgx8xdmy
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 19, 2015
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Before you go get the Kleenex to wipe the salty tears from your face because you are so very saddened to see such an empathetic figure in pain, this might be fake. Shocking, I know. A quick Google Reverse Search shows that this image is from the site Medscapestatic.
Wow. That’s some next level cuntrag shit.
Thankfully it seems that there is some sort of balance in the world. Imprimis Pharmaceuticals is utilizing all of the abhorrent press that Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals have received from the massive and unjustified price hike of the drug to their advantage. On Thursday, Imprimis Pharmaceuticals introduced an alternative to Daraprim, which it plans retail for $1 per pill. No really, one fucking dollar. Like a motherfucking small bag of fries on the goddamn dollar menu.
Imprimis’s CEO, Mark L. Baum, told the San Diego Tribune that pyrimethamine is so incredibly cheap, that he can make a “significant profit” by selling it for a just buck per pill. Yet the dastardly Shkreli needed to bloat the price to the outrageous price of $750 a tablet. Un-fucking-believable.
So the same free market that allowed Shkreli to inflate the price of the drug to preposterous levels, is also the free market where a competitor sees the value in undercutting a rival and snatch their customers as well as garner some great publicity for an industry that severely lacks any positive limelight.