A lifesaving drug that used to cost $13.50 was going to have its price increased to $750, but the company just changed its mind.You probably already know about Martin Shkreli, the former hedge fund manager turned pharmaceutical executive who this week usurped the lion-killing dentist as the most hated man in America. Long story short, his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of Daraprim, a pill that sick people need to live. The internet responded by calling him all the worst things:
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Well, Shkreli caved Tuesday, and just told NBC News that the cost of the drug is going to be relowered over the next few weeks. Shkreli didn't say what the new price will be, but admitted he made the decision in an effort to appease the public, so its safe to assume the drop will be significant."I think that it makes sense to lower the price in response to the anger that was felt by people," Shkreli said this afternoon. He stopped short of apologizing, though, saying only that "there were mistakes made with respect to helping people understand why we took this action.""I think in the society we live in today it's easy to want to villainize people, and obviously we're in an election cycle where this is a very, very tough topic for people and it's very sensitive," he continued. "And I understand the outrage."The topic had already become an issue in the 2016 presidential election. In a tweet Monday, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton called Turing's price hike "outrageous," and hinted she would propose possible regulations to address the issue.Clinton tweeted again today:It's one thing to LOOK like Hitler, quite another to aspire to be him — David Smith (@Smudgeboy99)September 22, 2015
With the specter of President Hillary's regulatory hammer looming over Wall Street, biotech stocks took a nose dive. By Monday evening, another pharmaceutical manufacturer that had come under fire for jacking up the price of a tuberculosis medication moved to reverse its own price hike.Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter.