“Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli Fires Back At Sydney Schoolboys Who Upstaged Him

Word has finally reached Martin Shkreli that a team of Year 11 Sydney students recreated his drug, Daraprim, in a school laboratory for a fraction of the price. He didn’t react well.

Martin Shkreli, aptly dubbed the “big pharma bro” is best known as the pharmaceutical executive who inflated the price of an essential HIV drug (Daraprim) from $US13.50 to $US750, per tablet.

A group of schoolboys from Sydney Grammar School managed to recreate Daraprim for $AU2, per dosage.

Shkreli released a video statement on his YouTube channel, in which he addressed the students’ work. A few hours after the video was live, he took to Twitter and fired off a series of Tweets which weren’t quite as cool, calm or collected.

Shkreli turned up the heat by criticising Guardian journalist Melissa Davey; he then defended his work as an “innovator”.

He then compared the students to 14-year-old Texan boy, Ahmed Mohamed, who was arrested when authorities had mistaken his “handmade clock” for a “hoax bomb”.

By the looks of things, someone isn’t a fan of being upstaged.

Sydney Grammar School did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Photo: Twitter (@MartinShkreli)