Health

Why a drug company raised a pill’s price 4,100 percent

Bob CollinsBob Collins Sep 21, 2015
18

This is Martin Shkreli, who today became the face of the perceived problem with the health care industry– drug makers.

Shkreli, a hedge fund manager by trade, is CEO of Turning Pharma, which bought the rights to Daraprim, for 62 years has a standard treatment for a food-borne illness caused by a parasite, and raised the price per pill from $18 to $750.

Shkreli has been making the rounds on TV business channels today, and has said the drug is still “at the low end” of what it should cost.

“Profits are a great thing to sustain your corporate existence,” he told CNBC.

Some doctors have said patients won’t be able to afford the drug.

When the CNBC host asked if he feels badly about the situation, Shkreli replied, “No,” saying the company is giving the pill away to low-income people.

In an earlier interview with Bloomberg, Shkreli said under the old price, the cost per course of treatment “to save your life was only $1,000, and these days cancer drugs can cost $100,000.”

Shkreli said the company will never deny anyone treatment. “That’s something the previous company wasn’t doing,” he said.

He said the company would use its profits to develop a better drug to treat the illness.