The man known for shockingly raising the price of a longstanding medication from $13.50 to $750 overnight has been arrested by the FBI. Pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martin Shkreli was arrested as part of a federal investigation concerning his former hedge fund and a pharmaceutical company that he previously ran.
Shkreli is best known as the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. Earlier this year in September, Shkreli raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill in one single night. The move caused extreme outrage, as it showed that Shkreli only cared about making money rather than helping his clients. The move was attacked by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Some people have gone as far to call Shkreli the “most hated man in America”.
Since then, Shkreli has been somewhat of a poster child for rising drug prices. Turing acquired the rights for the medication just one month prior to the incredible price hike. The move left many HIV patients unable to access the critical medication, which can be a matter of life or death. While Shkreli later vowed to reduce the price, he eventually retracted his promise, sparking further outrage.
Daraprim is commonly used to treat parasitic infections, often in HIV positive patients. The drug was originally developed in the 1940s, and it has been on the market since the 1950s. Other companies have since come forward, saying that they would offer a substitute of the drug at a cheaper price.
The arrest of Shkreli concerns his actions while he was the manager of the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management and the CEO of biopharmaceutical firm Retrophin. Shkreli was later ousted the company’s CEO, and he was eventually sued by the company’s board of directors. According to lawsuits filed in New York, Shkreli allegedly took part in insider trading and making false claims to artificially inflate the stock price of Retrophin. Shkreli had previously denied any illegal actions on an online pharmaceutical news board.
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