Hedge fund manager turned pharmaceutical company CEO Martin Shkreli, who recently found himself in the Internet limelight, has yet another trick up his sleeve.
Shkreli may be more known as the "pharma bro" who recently acquired Turing Pharmaceuticals and hiked up the price of Daraprim by 5,000 percent, from $13.50 to $750 a tablet. He felt the wrath of the Twitterverse full blast after the story broke out.
It turns out that this isn't Shkreli's first controversy.
Shkreli formerly worked as director, officer and 10 percent stock owner of Retrophin, a biopharmaceutical company. Shkreli was later ousted, and Retrophin filed a $65 million lawsuit against Shkreli, alleging that the company was created solely to provide stock to investors when it became insolvent.
Prior to this, Retrophin acquired the rights to Thiola, a medication used to treat cystinuria. This inherited, lifelong disease causes the recurrent formation and excretion of kidney stones and is most commonly found in people below 40 years old.
The acquisition was approved by the FDA in 1988. Though there is no known cure for cystinuria, Thiola is used by patients who suffer from it.
During Shkreli's time with Retrophin, the price of Thiola was raised from $1.50 to more than $30 per pill.
"As a physician, treating cystinuria patients is extremely difficult. You can remove a kidney stone one day only to have the patient show up the next month with more kidney stones. Cystinuria patients are some of the bravest you will ever meet," wrote Benjamin Davies, an associate professor of urology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
"We love science and the possibility of curing disease. But we abhor predatory capitalism on the backs of the sick and silent. Can't we agree on that?"
Shkreli claims Retrophin's allegations are "preposterous" and that "the company draws a lot of speculative conclusions and half truths." He also intends to file a lawsuit against the said company.
Don't forget to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
