Martin Shkreli was a symptom of drug pricing, not the cause

Is it time to rethink our collective opinions on Martin Shkreli?

No.

But we need to recognize that he was but a symptom of our healthcare finance system.

Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission dropped their Second Interim Report “Specialty Generic Drugs: A Growing Profit Center for Vertically Integrated Pharmacy Benefit Managers”

(As an aside, what’s “specialty generic?” Is it like an “open secret?”)

In it, the FTC catalogs the many ways we are being overcharged.

Back to Shkreli - aside from that Wu Tang album, he was famous for increasing the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750.00 per tablet—a 5,500% increase.

He was roasted by the media, and eventually went to prison. Not for jacking up the price of Daraprim, but rather for securities fraud.

In that FTC report, there’s a heat map showing the markups on “generic specialty” drugs dispensed by PBM-affiliated pharmacies.

How many are in the Shkreli Zone?

FTC report here: https://lnkd.in/ei_fqDNG