NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Thursday asked a judge to jail Martin Shkreli while he awaits sentencing for securities fraud, after a Facebook post by the former drug company executive about Hillary Clinton prompted an investigation by the U.S. Secret Service.
"Shkreli has engaged in an escalating pattern of threats and harassment that warrant his detention pending sentencing," prosecutors said in a filing in Brooklyn federal court late on Thursday.
They pointed to a Sept. 4 Facebook post in which Shkreli offered $5,000 to followers who could grab a strand of Clinton's hair during the former presidential candidate's upcoming book tour. That led the Secret Service, charged with protecting Clinton, to contact him.
Hedge fund millionaire? Sounds like a Bernie Bro, I was not mistaken:
In October 2015, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders acknowledged having received a $2,700 donation from Shkreli, whom he had previously called a "poster child of greed". Sanders, however, said he would forward the money to Whitman-Walker Health, a D.C. community clinic known for its expertise in HIV/AIDS healthcare. Shkreli told medicine news portal STAT that among his reasons for donating to Sanders' campaign was that he supports some of Sanders' positions, excluding the ones about drug prices. He claimed he hoped to raise Sanders' attention in order to explain to him in a private meeting the drug companies' price-setting mechanisms.[135] In February 2017, Shkreli was invited to speak at Harvard University. The requested travel was approved by a judge.Why does he support socialists like Sanders? Why does a leftist enclave like Harvard invite him to speak? Because he can't control himself and projects his greed:
In May 2014 Retrophin acquired the rights to market Thiola, a drug used to treat the rare disease cystinuria.[53] Shortly before Retrophin fired Shkreli, Retrophin raised the price of Thiola from $1.50 to $30 per pill; patients must take 10 to 15 pills a day.[54]
In an article titled "The Most Unconscionable Drug Price Hike I Have Yet Seen", medicinal chemist Derek Lowe wrote of the Thiola action, "This one enrages me, and I do drug research for a living".[55]Retrophin did not lower the price after Shkreli's departure.[56]
Not surprisingly, Wikipedia leaves out one of the worse aspects of this sociopath's drug pricing strategy, making it very difficult for another company to offer the generic drug he raised the price on. From one of the links the article cites:
ReplyDeleteTuring loaded the deck even further in its own favor by insisting on a model of “closed distribution” for the drug, restricting access to patients, doctors, and a limited number of distributors and pharmacies. In the unlikely event that another company wanted to produce Daraprim, it would be hard to buy enough of the drug to reverse-engineer.