Everyone hates Martin Shkreli, the pharma bro who raised the price of an old but coveted prescription drug by 5,000 percent. It seemed, from his wack demeanor, that Shkreli was taking a Grinch-like joy in his actions; now, investigators have found proof that this is true.
Shkreli, according to the New York Times, wrote gleeful emails to co-workers describing the money to be made once his company Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired Daraprim, a pill fighting serious parasitic infection, and jacked up the price to $75,000 for one bottle of 100 pills—that’s $750 per pill.
“So 5,000 paying bottles at the new price is $375,000,000 — almost all of it is profit and I think we will get three years of that or more,” Mr. Shkreli wrote in the email to someone the congressional staff identified only as an outside contact. “Should be a very handsome investment for all of us. Let’s all cross our fingers that the estimates are accurate.”
Patients on the drug found themselves facing co-pays of up to $16,800, while doctors complained to Turing about the costs. The executives ignored their pleas, and waited for their $200 million in profits to roll in instead, according to the 250,000 pages of documents submitted to Congress by Turing.
Shkreli, the enemy of Ghostface (but not RZA, smh) as well as Wu-Tang fans the world over, has been subpoenaed to go before a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. However, he’s announced he’ll plead the Fifth Amendment.
Shkreli was indicted on securities fraud charges last year, one month after he was promoted to CEO of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals; he was fired soon after, and the company filed for bankruptcy. Shkreli recently swapped out legal representation from a major Washington, D.C. firm for high-powered New York criminal attorney Benjamin Brafman, who’s represented members of the mob as well as another infamous horrible person, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
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Image via AP.