Martin Shkreli’s Arrest Causes A Stir In ‘Big Pharma’ Game


Since the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli, posted a $5 million bail, many organizations with whom he had a business relationship with are making efforts to distance themselves from his reputation.

The egocentric entrepreneur was recently arrested and accused of setting up a ponzi scheme, where he duped investors in order to pay off others by creating other companies with the help of his lawyer, Evan Greebel, who was also arrested.

It’s been widely reported that presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who received a donation of $2,700 from Shkreli in exchange for a meeting, publicly rejected the donation — as mentioned in an article posted by Boston.com — and instead, donated the money to a Washington health clinic for AIDS research this October, a few months before his indictment.

Martin Shkreli seems once again determined to price a lifesaving drug out of reach of the people who need it. This time he’s trying to increase the price over 100,000%.

Posted by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday, December 16, 2015

But more recently, CNN Money published a story about a public high school that received a million dollar donation from Martin Shkreli at the beginning of the year, which is apparently angering that high school’s alumni.

Many are even blaming those involved in Shkreli’s education for his criminal activities, including that same high school which he attended before dropping out to pursue a career on Wall Street.

Those also in the line of fire of blame are previous employers such as the host of Mad Money Jim Cramer, who apparently hired Martin as a intern when he was 17, but claims that he never had a business relationship with him.

Cramer was quick to distance himself soon after the arrest was made public on his show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suAYYDVLTc0

As a popular reporter of Wall Street’s gains and losses, Cramer’s position is reflective of the relationship between the financial markets and the future of Shkreli’s companies.

One of them being Martin Shkreli’s own Turing Pharmaceuticals, who posted an official press release on their site right after Martin’s release, to say that Ron Tilles — who was previously the company’s board chairman — had taken over as leader of Turing in which he released a neutral statement on the former CEO.

“We wish to thank Martin for helping us build Turing Pharmaceuticals into the dynamic research focused company it is today, and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

The details on Martin Shkreli’s scheme are detailed in a write up by the Inquisitr, which goes into even more details about the arrest of his lawyer, which another source, The Heavy, goes into even further with a list of his history as a lawyer and the latest accusations against him.

Over time, anger against Shkreli has intensified, moving from the investor-class to the general public because of news over the summer of hyper-inflating prices on a pill his company provided for life-threatening illnesses, simply for the fact that he could make money off of it.

Even though the latest charges on him are not related to the price-gouging, most people are hoping that the indictment will get tied in.

However, since that was reported, the subject of other pharmaceutical companies also jacking up the prices of drugs has become an issue placed front-and-center for the Democratic debates this year. Bernie Sanders has spoken on it, as well as has Hillary Clinton.

No one—including Martin Shkreli—should have the power to price gouge American families.

Posted by Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, December 9, 2015

The New York Times published an article which says that Martin Shkreli’s indictment possibly provides cover to other pharmaceutical companies who mark up their products.

In the case of Martin Shkreli, the controversy was around Daraprim, which is given to AIDS patients. The Inquisitr wrote a report on another company that was willing to lower the price on a version of that drug, in response to the outrage, to $1 a pill.

In an article from the same source; another company named Valeant, got some flak from the already mentioned candidates for a similar price hike on Isuprel to $1,346 and Nitropress to $805, where it was promised that a bill would be put through along with an investigation by the Sanders campaign, into Valeant.

During this adjustment after Shkreli’s arrest, that same company was forced to hold a meeting to announce the cutting of earnings and sales forecasts, as reported by the New York Times.

Valeant’s chief executive was very direct about his position.

“If the board wants to fire me, they are welcome to fire me, but until they do, we’re going to get through this thing.”

Those who have followed Martin Shkreli’s story in the media know that he’s very public on his Twitter account. He even expressed his anger against Bernie Sanders’ rejection of his donation. Shkreli would have seen his response to HIV activist Josh Robbins, who tweeted to Martin his support for him and his company, to which Martin Responded.

Soon after Martin Shkreli’s arrest, people took to Robbins’ account on Twitter for a follow up.

The only response he appears to have is whether the drug Daraprim would be unavailable if either Turing Pharmaceutical were to go under, or if Shkreli is no longer involved.

After Martin Shkreli posted bail, he released a three-hour video on his YouTube channel where he’s seen playing guitar, chess online, and browsing the internet.

[Featured image by Chris Potter via Flickr is under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) License]

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