# Hedge Fund Manager Buys Rights To Critical Drug, Hikes Price By 5000% **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 21, 2015, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedge-fund-manager-buys-rights-to-critical-drug-hikes-price-by-5000/732144 "2015-09-21T20:02:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedge-fund-manager-buys-rights-to-critical-drug-hikes-price-by-5000/732144/161 "2015-12-17T20:03:20Z")
For Mr. Shkreli, I guess the USA just raised the price… ( ∙\_∙) ( ∙\_∙)\>⌐■-■ (⌐■\_■) …of _freedom_. _YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!_ ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedge-fund-manager-buys-rights-to-critical-drug-hikes-price-by-5000/732144/162 "2015-12-17T21:32:06Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > In one sense this is bad news. > > Martin Shkreli was a poster-boy for the theme: _ **America’s unfettered dog-eat-dog capitalism is bad** _. Now the defenders of dog-eat-dog will be able to say “No, Shkreli is a criminal; he’s just an aberration.” You would rather he go free? I think I get your point though, but correct me if I’m wrong. the public in general won’t understand that the arrest has nothing to do with the price gouging and may think that the way he priced Daraprim was in some way against the law and that therefore there is no problem to be solved. I think though, that now that the issue has been broached, we may start seeing reports and memes all over the internet about price gouging drug companies and people will get the point that it’s still going on. Not that I’m a supporter of internet memes being used to spread info. We all know how horrible the signal to noise ratio is; but there is some signal in all of that noise. ---
**Author:** ![Vaevictis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f04885/32.png) [@Vaevictis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vaevictis)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedge-fund-manager-buys-rights-to-critical-drug-hikes-price-by-5000/732144/163 "2015-12-18T02:39:34Z")
Amazing, only in America. His drug pricing outrage was legal, but once he did something that could bleed money from investors he is arrested. Same as Madoff going to jail for stealing from the rich while there is no prosecution for too big to fail banks irresponsibly trashing the housing market so that regular Americans woke up underwater on their mortgages. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedge-fund-manager-buys-rights-to-critical-drug-hikes-price-by-5000/732144/164 "2015-12-18T04:20:46Z")
> [@Vaevictis](#): > > Amazing, only in America. His drug pricing outrage was legal, but once he did something that could bleed money from investors he is arrested. Same as Madoff going to jail for stealing from the rich while there is no prosecution for too big to fail banks irresponsibly trashing the housing market so that regular Americans woke up underwater on their mortgages. You’ve put it perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedge-fund-manager-buys-rights-to-critical-drug-hikes-price-by-5000/732144/165 "2015-12-18T07:01:37Z")
Karma is such a wonderful bitch. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedge-fund-manager-buys-rights-to-critical-drug-hikes-price-by-5000/732144/166 "2015-12-18T07:13:18Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > In one sense this is bad news. > > Martin Shkreli was a poster-boy for the theme: _ **America’s unfettered dog-eat-dog capitalism is bad** _. Now the defenders of dog-eat-dog will be able to say “No, Shkreli is a criminal; he’s just an aberration.” Or proof that the system works, despite the naysayers. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedge-fund-manager-buys-rights-to-critical-drug-hikes-price-by-5000/732144/167 "2015-12-18T16:23:59Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > How does he think he can compete with Imprimis’ $0.99 a capsule? We heard about the development on the radio last night, and they aired a clip of him in an interview justifying the price hike. He said it was very expensive for him to acquire the rights to the drug, and couldn’t sell it for $13.50 per pill because they would be losing an enormous amount of money. So I thought, ‘If he knew he couldn’t sell the drug at the going rate, why did he go ahead and spend gobs of money to acquire the rights to it? Seems like a bad business decision.’ It _is_ starting to sound like he was trying to prop up his Ponzi scheme. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedge-fund-manager-buys-rights-to-critical-drug-hikes-price-by-5000/732144.md?page=8)