
Martin Shkreli Says ‘Of Course’ He’d Raise Drug Price Again - JumpCrisscross
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-23/martin-shkreli-says-of-course-he-d-raise-drug-price-again?cmpid=BBD122316_BIZ
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BoorishBears
Why is it news that he'd do the same thing again? His response was perfect:
"It worked and we're making more money, exactly as intended".

Was popular outrage, the majority of which was from people who had no prior
knowledge required to frame what was happening (and I didn't have that
knowledge either) and no power to affect it really supposed to make him regret
it?

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santoriv
I imagine if you asked Dick Cheney about the Iraq War, Wall Street executives
about the 2008 financial crisis, or the heads at the NSA about the Snowden
revelations, they would give you a similar response.

Even when you are caught lying, fabricating, breaking the law, or defrauding
the public, you will get away with it 100% if you are in a position of wealth
and power. American institutions are apparently not strong enough to deal with
this kind of corruption.

Sometimes I wonder if I should give my children the advice "Be good and moral
and care about other people" or "Do everything you can to be rich and powerful
so you can make yourself as immune to adversity as possible."

Sometimes I feel like the latter would be more helpful.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
>Sometimes I wonder if I should give my children the advice "Be good and moral
and care about other people" or "Do everything you can to be rich and powerful
so you can make yourself as immune to adversity as possible."

Give them the former advice, and also tell them to make themselves as immune
to adversity as possible because the world contains bad people. Goodness
doesn't stop being good because badness exists, nor does the world become
better by a refusal to confront and eliminate bad things.

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danieltillett
He has done us all a service. The real problem is not the jacking up of the
price of some obscure drug that almost nobody uses, but the constant yearly
10% to 20% increases in the blockbuster drugs that billions are spent on. By
dragging the activities of the pharmaceutical industry into the light he is
helping make change possible [1].

1\. I do have some sympathy for the pharmaceutical industry as it has through
its greed managed to get itself caught in the vice of rising regulation and
safety requirements and payer (insurance) coverage restrictions. If only it
was pharma management rather than the scientists that are being crushed.

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pharrington
>Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager who posts on Twitter frequently

This is terrible reporting. Donald Trump posts on Twitter frequently.
Shkreli's a veritable memelord.

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jmcgough
Lol, every other tweet is about harambe, his supposed upcoming rap album or
hillary having parkinsons.

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aminozuur
Shkreli is right to ask anything he wants. If you want real change, get the
AFD to loosen up their competition-killing requirements.

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kirubakaran
He has some good content here
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8gjB1PSXv_oAUSAQ16S0fA/vid...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8gjB1PSXv_oAUSAQ16S0fA/videos)

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unpwn
Why should he be any different than the rest of the industry?

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Grue3
It's just basic economics. Supply and demand. There are only two options:
raise the price so that producing the drug makes sense, or stop producing the
drug altogether. For people who need the drug, the first option is obviously
preferable.

~~~
stormcrowsx
This is not a typical case of Supply and Demand. This is a case of someone
having complete control of supply on a necessity for some people and charging
whatever they want because insurance and social programs will foot the bill.
In some cases the drug companies can very cheaply produce the drugs.

This isn't a problem in a competitive market they would never get away with
this sort of stuff but our laws and our healthcare system have created a
perfect environment for exploiting.

Can't blame people like Martin for doing it but we can blame politicians for
not doing something about it.

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electric_sheep
So, to sum up, "I have no regrets, except for the ruinous consequences of my
actions." Well, okay. I'm amazed that he still gets to play like he's the
smartest guy in the room, having so comically overplayed his hand.

