Studies stated Shkreli was not a rogue

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Credit: @Martin Shkreli Caption: Picture of Martin Shkreli with his thumbs up.

Benjamin Berth

Last week proved the power of public rage as Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli promised to roll back the infamous price hike of Daraprim, an essential toxoplasmosis drug. After purchasing rights to the 60-year old medicine, Shkreli pushed the price of the drug from $13.50 USD per pill to $750, an increase of over 5000%.

The result was a public uproar so loud that Shkreli himself came out with a statement promising to amend the price to a much more bearable level-a level yet unknown to the public. In addition, the hedge fund manager also stated his Twitter account would go private.

The revelation that this event gives way to, however, is bigger than a single price hike. In 2009, as reported by the New England Journal of Medicine a company by the name of URL Pharma pulled a very similar stunt. Colchicine, the active ingredient of a pill used to treat gout, is a derivative of a Greek plant called autumn crocus, and has seen use since the 1800s. Prior to URL’s bid to gain rights to the medicine, it cost just over 9 cents a pill. After the company obtained marketing rights for the medicine, the price jumped all the way to $4.95 USD, another 5000% increase.

If this practice is indeed commonplace in the drug industry, as seen with other drugs like albendazole, a drug used to treat intestinal parasites-then why are so many of these same business practitioners roasting Shkreli? Republican presidential candidate and source of controversy Donald Trump weighed in, calling the 32-year old a “spoiled brat,” as reported by the Washington Post.

Even the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) attempted to separate itself from the scandal.

As stated on the group’s twitter page tuesday, “.@TuringPharma does not represent the values of @PhRMA member companies,”

If pharmaceuticals companies frequently raise prices of niche drugs to turn a profit through history, then why is this case different?

“I think they don’t really have a right to condemn it. They can’t change what happened before but they can change how he’s acting now,” sophomore Bobby Curtis said.

Hopefully the cycle of corporate exploitation of marketing rights is a pattern that will come to an end.