Former Hedge Fund Manager Is Getting Crucified For Increasing Price Of AIDS/Cancer Drug From $13.50 To $750

Metro- The price of a drug used to treat AIDS and cancer patients has rocketed overnight.

The reason: A pharmaceutical company run by a former hedge fund manager raised the price of a tablet from $13.50 to $750.

Daraprim is a 62-year-old drug used to treat those with weak immune systems, and also toxoplasmosis, a parasite infection that can cause serious problems for babies born to women who become infected during pregnancy. The drug was acquired by Pharmaceuticals back in August.

They slapped a new price tag on it – and now specialists in the field of infectious disease are protesting.

Earlier this month, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association sent a joint letter to Turing calling the price increase for Daraprim ‘unjustifiable for the medically vulnerable patient population’, reports the New York Times.

But Turing founder Martin Shkreli, a 32-year-old former hedge fund manager, argues the drug is rarely used and will therefore not have a detrimental impact on health care.

He told the newspaper: ‘This isn’t the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is us trying to stay in business.

‘This is still one of the smallest pharmaceutical products in the world. It really doesn’t make sense to get any criticism for this.’



Listen, I am certainly not here to defend the honor of a former hedge fund manager turned pharmaceutical executive. In fact, I don't know this guy's past, but if his 5,500% increase on an AIDS/Cancer drug is any indication then he's probably very deserving of both AIDS and cancer. 

With that said, a drug that can cure AIDS and cancer probably should cost $750 dollars because it clearly has to be transported from 'Never Never Land' on the backs of flying unicorns. To clarify, a drug that effectively treats both of those deadly diseases does not exist. If it did, we wouldn't have to read this article to know the name of it. Pretty sure that would have been international news. In fact, if there were a $13 pill on the market that legitimately helped cancer patients eve a little bit I would have invested $100 into buying a few bottles just in case myself or a loved one happened to fall victim to that awful disease. If anything, this morally corrupt asshole did people a favor. He priced the people that were naive enough to think a $13 pill could cure their terminal disease out of the fraudulent medication market. That may not have been his intention, but it was absolute the result. 

This guy said it himself, he's just trying to stay in business, and I got to be honest, even though he is douchebag, I kind of believe him. Pushing the remedy to AIDS and cancer has to be a hard sell when the price tag is less than your average t-shirt. Say you go on E-Bay and see an autographed Drew Brees football going for $3. Do you assume it's the greatest deal in the history of transactions, or do you assume some shithead found a football in his backyard, scribbled some crap on it and threw it on an auction site? That's the exact same concept at hand. There is a huge difference between a bargain and a scam. Bottom line? Everyone can rest assured, because while it's never right to increase the price of something by $736.50, no one that is suffering from AIDS or cancer is worse for the wear without this placebo at their disposal. 

P.S. While I did just semi-defend him, I do need this guy with the terrible hair part to get some kind of illness. His picture just gave me douche chills so if he could at least get a really bad flu that would be fantastic.