Shkreli Has To Be A False Flag Op For Corporate Charter Reform

Because no one could possibly be this much of a cartoon villain (boldface mine):

Martin Shkreli is once again provoking alarm with a plan to sharply increase the price of a decades-old drug for a serious infectious disease. This time the drug treats Chagas disease, a parasitic infection that can cause potentially lethal heart problems….

The plan also is upsetting some organizations that supply drugs for neglected diseases because Mr. Shkreli has said he wants to take advantage of a federal program intended to encourage companies to develop such drugs. The program awards vouchers that can be sold to other companies for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mr. Shkreli has said he hopes to obtain such a voucher by getting the Chagas disease drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for sale in the United States. Critics say that it would be another case of the system being abused by awarding a voucher not for developing a new drug but merely for obtaining F.D.A. approval of a drug already used in tropical countries

He set off a furor in September after his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, acquired the rights to a 62-year-old drug for toxoplasmosis, another parasitic infection, and raised its price overnight to $750 a pill from $13.50…

As one of his first moves at KaloBios, Mr. Shkreli agreed to license the worldwide rights to one version of benznidazole, a standard treatment in South and Central America, where Chagas disease is most common.

Benznidazole has never been approved for sale in the United States but is provided free to patients by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on an experimental basis.

Mr. Shkreli said on a conference call with KaloBios investors last week that if the company won F.D.A. approval for benznidazole, it would have exclusive rights to sell it in the United States for at least five years. He said the price would be similar to that of hepatitis C drugs, which cost $60,000 to nearly $100,000 for a course of treatment.

In Latin America, benznidazole costs $50 to $100 for the typical two-month course of treatment.

If there were ever a case for revoking a corporation’s charter and seizing its assets based on the public interest clauses found in those corporate charters, this would be it. Lest you think the primary function of a corporation is to maximize shareholder value, established law is clear that other concerns can and do take precedence.

If KaloBios goes through with its plan, there is no need or reason to provide it with the advantages of incorporation.

This entry was posted in Bidness, Biotech, Viruses. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Shkreli Has To Be A False Flag Op For Corporate Charter Reform

  1. Colin says:

    Right on. Also, incorporation and its attendant advantages is one of the myriad reasons the private sector depends upon the public sector to provide infrastructure, define the parameters and rules of the marketplace, and punish those who break those rules.

  2. TheBrummell says:

    I’m beginning to think Martin Shkreli really *is* a cartoon supervillain. Perhaps he’s trolling the US government, by acting out the most outlandish possibilities allowed by pharmaceuticals-regulation laws in the hope of provoking change?

    If the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one, and the best way to change the world is to be the change you want to see, then perhaps a reasonable first step is supervillainy?

Comments are closed.