The Enemy of the People

Martin Shkreli founded Turing Pharmaceutical in the year 2015 with the aim of coming up with patient-oriented medical products. However, his actions have led to a series of court cases and bad publicity over the last three years. Despite his success in coming up with the life-saving pharmaceutical products, Martin Shkreli has been termed as the enemy of the people after hiking the price of these medications.

Incident Background

The main aim of coming up with the Turing Pharmaceutical company was to produce medicines that would offer more effective treatment options to patients. Their breakthrough became evident when they developed vecamyl and daraprim, both of which are useful to patients with HIV infections. Every business should ensure that all workers operate under the principles of integrity and good faith. However, Martin Shkreli went against these principles and hiked the price of these essential drugs without considering the implications of his actions.

The pharmaceutical industry is a sensitive market that requires adherence to the general principles of business ethics. Market players, especially medicine producing firms, should ensure that the well-being of their clients is placed before other factors such as making more profits. For instance, while pricing pharmaceutical products, they should consider the status of their clients in terms of economic capabilities rather than their vulnerability and health needs. It is clear that Shkreli did not consider these crucial elements despite him being an experienced market player in this industry. His main reason for raising these prices was to match their use with its cost. In other words, he argued that since these medications were crucial to maintaining their health, they should be sold at a high price. However, his decision was heavily criticized by different people and organizations. Most of them believed that Turing Pharmaceuticals should have reviewed his decision based on its implications to their clients rather than depending on Shkreli’s argument. Additionally, they should have also considered the health needs of their clients before raising these prices. Besides, the drug was already making profits before the hiking. All these complaints were presented on different platforms such as the social media. Unfortunately, their outcry fell on deaf ears since both Shkreli and the Turing Pharmaceuticals did not change their decision.

Shkreli understood the anger and disagreement from the people. However, he expressed his notoriety using the same platforms used by people to attack him. He fired taunts back to people through his social media arguing that his actions were well thought. Notably, this medication was not expensive before Shkreli became a significant figure in this organization. He used the vulnerability of HIV positive patients to reap more revenue for the company.

Toxoplasmosis is a common parasitic disease. It is not a health hazard to people with a healthy lifestyle. However, it is a life-threatening disease for people with low immune systems such as those with HIV infections (Connaughton, 2015). These people tend to experience fatigue, seizures and frequent headaches. Luckily, Gertrude Elion developed Daraprim to fight this health problems. During its introduction into the market, the drug was costing approximately thirteen point five dollars. However, Shkreli raised the cost of these drugs to seven hundred and fifty dollars.

The implication for Martin Shkreli

Although price hiking in the pharmaceutical industry is a common practice, it is evident that his comments and reactions were the main cause of criticisms. His professionalism was also criticized and termed as immature considering the nature of the company he was leading (Johnson, 2016). These actions differed with the perceptions held by the pharmaceutical industry. Shkreli was also blamed for his lack of remorse. After being questioned regarding this step to hike the prices, he stated that he would have hiked it much higher. This was based on the argument that his company was for-profit despite it being a healthcare organization. He added that there was no conflict of interest as other organizations claimed.

Shkreli was engaged in different battles with the legislature. His reactions and behavior painted a bad image against Turing Pharmaceuticals. Their critics neither moved him nor shaken by the reaction of other industry players. His main argument was that since the drug was useful to patients, it should also be beneficial to the pharmaceutical companies. He also argued that the hike was meant to fund more research. However, these allegations are perceived as immoral and insulting to people (Mullin, 2015).

As stated earlier, drug profiteering is not a crime or an illegal practice. However, his behavior and attitude towards this hike drove attention for his behavior in other contexts. Most of these crimes were legally incriminating. Therefore, his actions did affect not only his reputation in the pharmaceutical industry but also his behavior in the financial market.

Company’s Reaction

Most organizations reacted negatively to Martin’s behaviors, in fact, some of these pharmaceutical companies were quick to denounce him. An oversight association that controls all the pharmaceutical organizations also threatened to remove Turing Pharmaceutical from the list of its members. In the social media, other organizations and association gave similar disclaimers arguing that Shkreli’s actions did not represent their principles.

Turing pharmaceuticals claimed that Shkreli’s actions were not meant to demean the lives of their patients. In their responses, they argued that the company had anticipated these reactions. However, they assured consumers that the situation was under control. They stated that they would ensure that all patients will access their medications despite their new prices. They also claimed that this was a battle between insurance companies and pharmaceutical firms and not with consumers. In this case, they argued that only commercial insurance firms were to pay this high prices and not those under the Medicare coverage. However, these claims did not reduce the resistance from other clinical centers until the company promised to reduce the prices. In fact, there are clinical organizations that refused to associate with the Turing Pharmaceutical until the hiked prices were withdrawn. These challenges were further experienced in Turing despite it dissociating itself with Shkreli actions both within the organization and beyond (Herper, 2016).

In conclusion, it is evident that Martin Shkreli was an important figure in Turing Pharmaceutical Company. His decision to hike prices affected not only his reputation but also that of the company. It also attracted other crimes that led to his conviction. Despite all these problems, Shkreli was not apologetic nor remorseful. In fact, he promised to raise the price of these products if given an opportunity. Despite them retaining the new prices, Turing Pharmaceuticals were forced denounce Martin’s actions by arguing that their main objective was not to harm their patients but rather the insurance companies.

References

Connaughton, M. (2015). The rise, infamy, and downfalls of “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, explained. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2015/12/17/10436618/martin-shkreli-arrest-explained

Herper, M. (2016). Solving Pharma’s Shkreli problem. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2016/01/20/solving-pharmas-shkreli-problem/#3bcbd2fe49ab

Johnson, C. (2016). How pharma bro Martin Shkreli described his own drug price hike: ‘Almost all of it is profit.’ Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/02/how-pharma-bro-martin-shkreli-described-his-own-drug-price-hike-almost-all-of-it-is-profit/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a7e8ef9e076a

Mullin, E. (2015). Turing Pharma says Daraprim availability will be unaffected by Shkreli arrest. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilymullin/2015/12/21/turing-pharma-says-daraprim-availability-will-be-unaffected-by-shkreli-arrest/#14e7e36a21ee