Biotech Values

[Titan V]

Revenge of the hoodie: Martin Shkreli fires back at the drug industry
https://www.statnews.com/2017/01/23/shkreli-revenge-drug-industry/

Shkreli, the former drug company CEO who rocketed to notoriety when he hiked the price of an old drug by 5,000 percent, routinely gets blamed by other pharma CEOs for tarnishing the reputation of the entire industry. On Monday, the trade group PhRMA launched a new multi-million dollar ad blitz specifically aimed at distancing itself from Shkreli.

The public discourse on drugs “has been focused on some guy in a hoodie,” PhRMA CEO Stephen Ubl told CNBC, in a reference to Shkreli’s trademark attire. The new campaign, he said, will show the world that the drug industry is about hard work and scientific discovery, not price gouging. Or, as he put it: “Less hoodie, more lab coats.”

That did not sit well with Shkreli.

He’s been removed from his CEO post at Turing Pharmaceuticals and he’s under federal indictment on security fraud charges but just hours after the ad campaign was unveiled, Shkreli went public with PharmaSkeletons.com, a bare-bones website that returns fire. Big time.