CEO Martin gained instant infamy when news surfaced that he’d hiked up the price of Daraprim — a drug used to treat life-threatening parasitic infections — by over 5,000 percent.
It turns out he’s something of a Bernie Sanders supporter. But the feeling is clearly not mutual.
A donation of $2,700 to the Sanders campaign from Shkreli — the maximum individual contribution — was promptly handed over to the Whitman-Walker health clinic in Washington.
“We are not keeping the money from this poster boy for drug company greed,” campaign spokesman Michael Briggs said.
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Most likely, Shkreli doesn’t agree with all of the candidates positions, and that’s what the donation was really about: send money, get Sanders’ attention, schedule meeting and tell him why he’s wrong about big pharma.
One of Sanders’ core positions as a self-described socialist is finding creative ways to allow people access to the medications they need at a lower cost. He’s proposed requiring Medicare to negotiate lowering prices and allowing people to import cheaper meds from Canada.
“He’ll take my money, but he won’t engage with me for five minutes to understand this issue better,” Shkreli said in an interview.
“Right now the rule of law in the United States is that drug companies can price their products wherever they see fit, not wherever he sees fit,” he said. “If the rule changes by congressional vote, then you know, I’ll adapt to the rules.”
