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How the saga of Martin Shkreli reflects the hypocrisy of American law
Earlier this month, notorious ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli, a businessman once widely dubbed by the US media as ‘the most hated man in America’, was sentenced to seven years in federal prison. His mistake? Conning the rich, when he was already doing such a fine job of screwing over the poor.
The former hedge fund manager was convicted of multiple cases of security fraud after investigations unearthed a Ponzi-like scheme set up to “ensnare investors through a web of lies and deceit" according to a statement by federal prosecutors. But back in 2015, months before Shkreli was arrested for his underhanded actions, the wealthy entrepreneur earned his infamy with a far more public display of corruption.
In September of that same year, Shkreli received widespread condemnation after his company Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the antiparasitic drug Daraprim – a form of medication used to treat patients with HIV/AIDS – and escalated the drug’s price by more than 5,000%, raising the cost per pill from $13.50 to a staggering $750.
In the face of heavy backlash, Shkreli remained unrepentant about his decision. "If there was a company that was selling an Aston Martin at the price of a bicycle,” Shkreli told CBS, “And we buy that company and we ask to charge Toyota prices, I don't think that that should be a crime." Turing later announced that they would offer discounts of up to 50% for hospitals along with other supportive measures that Tim Horn of the the AIDS research and policy organization Treatment Action Group would denounce as ‘lipstick on a pig’.
But while politicians across the board – including the current US president – were quick to reprimand Shkreli for his actions, the reality remains that such vicious price gouging, however unethical, was decidedly within Shkreli’s legal rights, such as the free market of US healthcare.
There lies the bigger problem, because in a time when the recent gutting of Obamacare has made life-saving treatments even harder to access, how many of those same disapproving politicians would be willing to put their disparaging words into policy?
Shameful though his actions were, Shkreli in some ways is a mere symptom of wider corruption; in a system that offers different standards of justice for different classes. It was only when Shkreli cheated the higher ranks of society that he finally crossed the line.
