Smart people don’t always use their minds to better the world. It’s a tough truth to face but many of the people who have made it to the top have done so manipulatively and to achieve ends some would call depraved. Such is the case with Martin Shkreli, and his evil master plan to kill American citizens. Why is he doing it? Uncontrollable greed would be the easiest answer. But his recent price gouging with a pharmaceutical named Daraprim may suggest even fowler intents.
Daraprim is a drug often used by AIDs and Cancer patients treat their symptoms. Daraprim significantly helps to improve the quality and length of sick person’s life. The drug used to cost $13.50 per dose. Which was affordable compared to similar drugs on the market. People have been using Daraprim for over 60 years, and many depend on it to maintain their quality of life.
Turing Pharmaceuticals, of New York, purchased the patent for the Daraprim in August. As a result, the cost of the drug has increased by 5,000 percent. Daraprim went from $13.50 to $750 for a single dose. And there’s nothing to be done – Turing Pharmaceuticals has acquired the exclusive rights to the drug. And who is to blame? What devious miscreant can we point our pitchforks at? Ladies and gentlemen: Martin Shkreli.
The kid “genius”, high school dropout turned Wall Street businessman, turned pharmaceutical corporate CEO, turned psychopath. This guy is malicious. And he has a nasty reputation for not abiding the rules when it comes to making money for himself. After Turing Pharmaceuticals (his newest business venture) started catching flak for the insane price hike, Shkreli made public comments that he doesn’t see what the fuss is about, his company “will offer exclusive and affordable access to Daraprim.”
But let’s be real, even if a person only takes Daraprim once a day it will cost them over thousands and thousands of dollars per month. And imagine that over the course of just half a year… Shkreli has grudgingly agreed to lower prices but by how much and when is still relatively unclear.
Drugs on the market that are equatable to Daraprim are equally as pricy. That’s how Shkreli’s trying to defend his price gouging, by claiming he’s doing it to compete with other drug companies… But it’s obvious what his conniving plan was from the start: Daraprim was the only affordable medication of its kind for over 60 years. People’s lives depend on it. Buy the rights to Daraprim and ditch the “affordable” part and suddenly you have a nation’s worth of cancer and AIDS patients slaving away their numbered days to afford to continue living.
Monsters are real. Martin Shkreli is proof enough of that fact. And if our nations justice system truly worked, we’d see this bastard walk the plank. We don’t have any more room in America for corporate psychopaths. We have enough of those already.