32-year-old New Yorker, Martin Shkreli, came under public condemnation after he acquired the brand of generic drug Daraprim, used to treat parasites, predominately at HIV positive patients. Drug that patient was able to buy for $18 per pill, now goes for average $750 which made public furious and Shkreli publicly targeted over the social networks, blogs, and magazines.
Of course, Shkreli is not known to take crap from anyone so he engaged into an open war against the entire online communities (I suppose that time could be used in more effective ways but nevertheless, it’s a free World.)
What’s peculiar is one of the Shkreli’s answers on Reddit, where he claims that insured patient will pay through insurance and uninsured will get the drug for free.
So if that is for a fact, what’s the problem? What’s all that fuzz about Martin Shkreli raising the price over his product? If I understand correctly, it’s a free market. My product is needed, perhaps even essential thus, I’ll make a killer until someone else provide with the alternative. It’s been done all over the place, especially in pharmaceutical industry.
Why sudden increase of the price?
Well why not when you think about it. You know how you’ll make the most money? You find the solution needed by many. Or you do something no one else is doing.
In case of Martin Shkreli, he had both options in his hands. Drug that is high in demand with ridiculous price per pill (which is in total contradiction with the rules of the free market), and he had a gut to pull something nobody else pulled before.
If you’ve noticed, after Shkreli’s move, other pharma companies raised the prices of their most demanded products.
The fact is: if you’re ready to shut down the moral standards and think drugs and diseases, you’ll make billions and ensure perfect sync with the monetary-market system. In other words, you’ll live in absolute freedom and unlimited abundance. No other lifeform on this planet has the opportunity to achieve something like that.
Is scrutiny over and attacks against Martin Shkreli and his decision justifiable?
Well, we do live in a world of cynicism and hypocrisy and if you want, you can justify almost everything. Shit, you can justify Holocaust if you want and as some people are relentlessly trying to do (won’t fly but they are persistent nevertheless.)
I’m willing to place a bet that 99% of all these “online regulators” would think, try and maybe pull the same thing Shkreli pulled if given the chance!
Put someone on the throne of power and only then you’ll see what kind of person he or she truly is.
Is Martin Shkreli immoral? Can he make quick billions in such a way?
He can to start with because, well, he just did. Is he immoral because of that?
Let me put it this way: do you know how much money your car truly cost to be produced? Around 10% or less of the price you paid for it. Do you hear people bitchin’ about it? How much does your housing property really cost? Around 20% or less of what you’ve purchased it for.
OK, maybe not the best comparisons, but there’s nothing that can prevent you to form the price of your own product.
The crowd went mad because it’s a known drug with the history of use at HIV positive people and as we all know, they are highly sensitive group. If it wasn’t for HIV patients, nobody would give a shit about Martin Shkreli and Daraprim. He would be just a guy who owns overpriced drug for treating toxoplasmosis, a parasitic affliction that affects tens of millions in the U.S. alone.
The bottom line is
Daraprim is 62-year-old drug. In 62 years, nobody came up with an idea to purchase the rights for the drug. Martin Shkreli, already a pharmaceutical CEO at the time, took his time to do a proper due diligence over the landscape and found something overlooked by many others.
He did what everyone else would do, guaranteed. Maybe not on that scale but each and every of us would take a long evening in peace and think about the way to make more profit. And there’s only one way to do it as Martin Shkreli clearly demonstrated.
People can bitch for as long as they like but that won’t change the fact that one bold move launched Martin Shkreli directly in super-wealthy retirement at the age of 32. Something to think about if nothing else.
