Why Drug Price Control Proponents Should Thank Martin Shkreli
​​[Posted on: Thursday, March 15, 2018]

Martin Shkreli, the drug executive made infamous by his obnoxious and self-destructive behavior, got a seven year prison sentence last week. His sentence has nothing to do with the reason the country hates him, and that reason lives. He deserves the fate, many argue, but we need to thank him for exposing the ugly face of price gouging common in the pharma industry. Shkreli showed how a company can purchase an old drug with no generics and overnight increase its price by 5000 percent, without breaking any laws or having to justify to anyone, with patients who depend on that drug to suddenly find their drug out of reach. This is a common practice and there is still no legal way to make companies justify the price they want to charge for their drug. A common excuse is the high cost of developing new drugs, a “reasonable” return on investment, and the cost of sustaining non-profitable drugs. But the most outrageous players have none of the above reasons to charge such prices but the fourth one; ability to exploit a monopoly. And since that monopoly affects patients with deadly diseases, it is not just unfair, but some opine that it should be criminal. We saw that with several other players, none of which have faced penalties or been affected in any other way. Most CEOs of companies asked to justify these price gouging are good presenters who can recite prepared notes to any group that tries to question the practice with ready answers to practically all questions. And since what they did was legal, these sessions are merely public relation events and have never lead to a company lowering the prices of its drugs. Shkreli is an outlier in terms of his arrogance in responding to questions about his actions and politically incorrect statements, but he said what no one would say openly, that he wanted to make as much money as possible for his investors, and not care for the patients.  In case you were wondering, the drug whose price was increased 5000% by Shkreli, still costs the same bloated price. So while Shkreli was use as the poster boy for the bad side of the industry, let us not forget that he is just one of the many who do the same. Drug price gouging is still a problem and don’t let the news of Shkreli going to prison create a false sense that drug price gougers are getting punished. Drug prices have gone out of the focus of discussion in the media in the last year; thanks to Shkreli we are talking about it today again. So, thank you Martin Shkreli for reminding us why the public hate you in the first place, and not forget to find your peers who deserve no different.