The man known as the “Pharma Bro” and legally barred from the industry is seemingly back in the business.
Martin Shkreli, freed from prison earlier this year after serving most of a seven-year sentence for lying to investors, said he’s setting up a crypto company to make it easier to design and model compounds.
In an interview with The Milk Road, a crypto newsletter, Shkreli said his idea isn’t just that would it replace expensive software, but also the computational power. The crypto element is his idea that people would be rewarded to share their computer power. “It’s a niche product for sure, but it could change the way medicine is made and help democratize this kind of fiefdom that’s the Pfizers, Mercks and Johnson & Johnson’s,” he said.
Shkreli also defended his price hike of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill. “The average cancer drug or rare disease drug in America in anywhere between $100,000 and $1 million. So I raised the price of Daraprim to something below, even though it’s a rare disease drug.” He differentiated his price rise from that of EpiPen.
“The companies that raised EpiPen’s price were Mylan and Pfizer, two really big companies. I ran a small, 100-person company in New York that we needed every dollar of revenue we can get.”
Other notable quotes:
- “I had a hedge fund business. Like in hedge funds, it’s pretty easy to break the law. You basically got a 50-50 chance that you’re breaking the law every day.”
- On serving time in an Allenwood, Penn. prison. “It was an interesting experience. I mean, it wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t the worst,” he said. He said he illegally purchased cellphones to get on the internet and listen to courses. “All the other prisoners are watching porn — I watched a little of that, but they’re not doing what I’m doing on there.”
The full interview is here:
