The CEO Who Hiked Up AIDS Medication To $750 A Pill Has Decided Not To Lower The Price After All

Remember the first-class gent who hiked up the price of a potentially lifesaving drug from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill? Well, he’s back!

In September, Turing Pharmaceuticals’ 32-year-old CEO Martin Shkreli was absolutely demolished by the Internet when it was revealed he’d be increasing the price of Daraprim pills in America.

(The pills are commonly used to fight life-threatening parasitic infections among those with weakened immune systems, such as AIDS and cancer patients.)

Though the drug had been around for 62 years, Shkreli kicked the price up several hundred notches after his company acquired it in August.

As the online community called him out for being the epitome of evil, Shkreli backpedaled, promising to lower the price.

Two months later? Not so much.

In a press release issued this week, Turing Pharmaceutical danced around the fact they wouldn’t actually be dropping the price.

Instead, it has promised to provide “reductions of up to 50 per cent of list price for hospitals” as well as “new, smaller bottles… to make it easier to stock Daraprim as well as lower their carrying costs.”

They have pledged, however, to provide the pill “free-of-charge to uninsured, qualified patients with demonstrated income at or below 500% of the federal poverty level through our Patient Assistance Program.”

Though American patients with insurance, or, those who qualify for certain federal and state programs, may only pay around $10 a pill, it seems likely that anyone unable to meet the regulations set by Turing will still need to dish out $750 a pill.

Shkreli went on Bloomberg to defend himself and did a terrible job of it.

Welcome back to the burning flames of the Internet's ire, Martin. You were missed.