32-year-old ex-hedge funder buys rights to AIDS drug and promptly raises price overnight by 5500%

Martin Shkreli

A former hedge fund manager has suffered severe backlash after purchasing the rights to a 62-year-old drug used for treating AIDS patients and raising the price overnight from $13.50 per tablet to $750. 

The drug

Martin Shkreli, 32, founder and chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, purchased the rights to Daraprim - which is used to treat life-threatening parasitic infections - in August for $55million.

Shortly thereafter, the price of the drug, which costs roughly $1 to produce, was increased to $750 per tablet. 

Shkreli told Bloomberg that he hiked up the price of the pill because Turing Pharmaceuticals 'needed to turn a profit on the drug'.

Since the announcement, people across social media have criticized the price increase, but Shkreli has backed the decision.'This isn't the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is us trying to stay in business,' Shkreli said, according to Raw Story. 

He added that many patients use the drug for less than a year and that the price is on par with drugs similar that are used to treat rare diseases.

Since his company acquired the drug, Shkreli has urged the importance of improving Daraprim and said drugs need to be developed for treating neglected tropical diseases.

Shkreli said that the proceeds from the newly high-priced Daraprim will be used to research better treatments and raise awareness for toxoplasmosis.,an opportunistic parasitic infection that can cause serious and life-threatening problems. Dailymail