Pharma CEO Martin Shkreli who jacked up AIDS pill price by 5,000% says he should have charged even more

The drug company CEO who jacked up the price of a life-saving pill to $750 from $13.50 said he wishes he had raised the price even more.

Turing Pharmaceuticals chief Martin Shkreli is now facing new lower-priced competition and government scrutiny. But he said at a forum hosted by Forbes magazine Thursday that the outcry over his company’s list price for a Daraprim pill didn’t cause him any regrets.

“I probably would have raised prices higher, is probably what I should have done.” said Shkreli, 32. “I could have raised it higher and made more profits for our shareholders, which is my primary duty."

 

He continued, “No one wants to say it, no one's proud of it, but this is a capitalist society, capitalist system and capitalist rules, and my investors expect to me to maximize profits, not to minimize them, or go half, or go 70%, but to go to 100% of the profit curve that we're all taught in MBA class."

Daraprim contains pyrimethamine, which has been used for more than six decades to treat a disease called toxoplasmosis capable of causing blindness or death in patients fighting cancer or HIV or pregnant women and their newborns.

The price of the drug stoked outrage against the former hedge fund manager. Shkreli, who grew up in Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay area, promised to lower the price of Daraprim then opted to discount the price by up to 50% for hospitals instead. Company officials argue that most patients pay very little out of pocket due to insurance and government programs. And Shkreli asserts the higher prices will pay for new research by the company.

“We’re sitting on one drug for toxoplasmosis that’s 70 years old? You don’t have to have a Ph.D in infectious diseases to know that’s a dangerous, dangerous place to be,” Shkreli said Thursday. “We’re developing three new drugs for toxoplasmosis, which, by the way, will be very expensive if they ever get approved, but hopefully will replace pyrimethamine as the backbone of therapy that we’ve been relying on too long.”

 

Other drug company executives and medical experts have taken Turing to task while acting to restore the drug’s cheap price. Imprimis Pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical giant Express Scripts announced plans to offer a $1 pill for toxoplasmosis patients Tuesday. The Infectious Diseases Society of America, the HIV Medicine Association and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society praised the companies.

“Since the price increase taken by Turing Pharmaceuticals in August, our infectious diseases and HIV medical provider members have reported significant challenges obtaining pyrimethamine for their patients,” the organizations said in a joint statement. “We are optimistic that this arrangement will help address the serious cost and access barriers that have prevented or delayed pregnant women, infants, and patients with HIV infection or following transplantation from accessing this lifesaving treatment.”

Elected officials have also slammed Turing. U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging chairman Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and ranking member Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) sent a letter last month to Shkreli demanding an extensive list of documents and answers to pointed questions about Daraprim. The committee is holding a hearing on sudden price spikes in pharmaceuticals next week.