I know, I know. Every news outlet and blog has already reported about Martin Shkreli and the infamous price gouging maneuver he pulled about a month ago. But if there’s anyone who deserves to be told to go fuck himself this week, it’s this guy. It simply has to be done.
Anyway, if you want to know the all details of who he is and what he did, there are plenty of them out there. However, in the teensiest of nutshells, this scumbag is the founder of a startup pharmaceutical company called Turing Pharmaceuticals. Last month they bought the patent for a drug called Daraprim – which is used to treat parasitic infections like toxoplasmosis – and raised the price of the drug from $13.50 (or $18, as Shkreli claims) to $750 per pill.
Yes, you read that right. PER PILL.
Seven hundred and fifty fucking dollars per pill.
That’s about a 5,500% (or only 4,000% as Shkreli claims) increase. I’m guessing it took about a month for someone to notice the price increase and expose the motherfucker. And when he was exposed, pretty much the entire internet attacked him. I don’t really have much to add to all the outrage. It’s all been discussed, tweeted, blogged, posted on Facebook, etc., over the past twenty-four hours.
Anyway, the mind simply boggles. It will not process this information. All I really have to say is this:
I mean, seriously, dude. WHAT THE FUCK????
I should point out that, by now, after enduring a huge internet shitstorm backlash, Shkreli has agreed to lower the price of the drug to a more “affordable” level. I put the word in quotes because who knows what the fuck he thinks affordable means. Previously, he said that the new price for the drug, $750, was a “more appropriate” price for it. I certainly don’t think he’s going to lower it down to its original price.
Unfortunately, in the United States of America, there are no laws regulating the costs of prescription drugs. It’s controlled by free-market capitalism. And as long as there are people needing live-saving medications, there will be people like this asshole willing to bend them over a chair and take advantage of them, without lube.
Random Misanthrope 
I am so glad you posted this. How can anyone believe that capitalism, cronyism, and oligarchy should be supported, promoted, held up as some shiny ideal for the world to model itself after when abominations like this case surface? There used to be laws against monopolies, laws against usury, laws against LYING…where was I looking (squirrel!) when all of this changed? When did it become ok for corporations to be treated as people and making the same wage for 10 years whilst CEO salaries increased by 1000 times was acceptable? Who believes this shit? What person could earn 35k a year and yet approve of this bullshit and fight against an estate tax?
My solution remains the same. They have to die. They have to die out. This country won’t be sane again until the old white people are dead and multi-cultural is the new majority.