Shkreli was the guy who bought the rights to the drug “Daraprim”, which is an anti virus drug used for HIV/cancer treatment and raised the price from $13.50 to $750.
His rational
- He claimed the price increases would boost margins, so the company can invest in making a better drug. Also, pointed out how he raised 90 million dollars, claiming that was the purpose of the money.
- He said it didn’t hurt the patients at all, because those without insurance would get it for free and those with insurance, just have the companies pay for it.
Both claims could be valid, but sort of fell apart for a few reasons.
- He spent a ton of money on random things personally, like buying the Wu Tang Clan’s album for 2 million and said it was to keep it from people, along with over a million on artwork. Technically wasn’t company money, but pretty bold to do, when claiming a 5000% price increase is to help people.
- Daraprim is a niche drug, only catering to 2,000 people in the US. In fact, the entire reason his company was the only one that made it was it was so rarely used, no larger company wanted to make it. Issue here is the money never made any sense, because he already raised million and Daraprim sales at $750, wouldn’t add much.
- The claim this didn’t hurt people was false, because ultimately, groups paying it were insurance & Medicare, which are backed by the public. He responded saying the price increase were small to insurance companies and it didn’t matter, but if every pharma company did this, collapse.
Even after all of that, a lot of the public defended him and saw some comments reflecting that.
“He exposed the pharma industry.”
“Why was he brought down and not insulin?”
“The only difference between him and the rest of the industry was he didn’t pay off Washington.”
A lot of points which Shkreli really did try to sell the public on and a valid point was brought up.
Why couldn’t every other pharma company do this?
They wouldn’t for obvious reasons, but in theory, they could.
The issue again goes to Shkreli being confirmation it existed, but not a solution.
If he raised 90 million dollars and said the mission was releasing cheaper insulin, that’s a solution.
He just joined a big problem and expanded it by a hundred.
So why did he become popular?
Really simple.
He trolled people some people don’t like.
Hillary Clinton
Bernie Sanders
Trey Gowdy
Many members of the right and left universally panned him.
Thus, a bunch of people who have no clue what Daraprim is and never met a person who needs it to survive supported him.
This makes an interesting point where someone can do something horribly wrong and be so clearly messing up, that people will defend, just based on who is attacking.
For politics, I think the obvious comparison is Donald Trump, where I don’t think people really ever loved Trump as much as they loved who he made angry.
And this is a bipartisan problem also. Disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti considered running for president as a democrat in 2020, when he was representing Stormy Daniels. The guy was nuts, but served as a bull dog against Trump so much that early primary polls said he was ahead of people like Cory Booker & many others.
It’s a weird lesson that branding to be intentionally disliked can weirdly enough make someone liked.
Shows there’s a limit to how unlikable someone can be, but they can win being hated.
Final point on this, fun story.
In 2016/2017, I was dating someone who weirdly had a crush on Shkreli.
Couldn’t really ever figure out why, but she’d watch all of his live streams and keep telling me to try calling in. Legitimately was a turn on.
No clue what was happening there, but shows even the most hated man in America can get fan girls.