Page 394 - The Case Lab Book

“No less an authority than Donald Trump said that Shkreli “looks like
a spoiled brat.”

“My parents were immigrants and janitors,” Shkreli says. “[Trump]

inherited wealth! Fuck him. And I thought we could be friends.” (6)

Shkreli maintained that the company would use profits to improve the

drug's formulation and develop new, better drugs for the infection. In
addition some patients could also obtain financial aid from the company to
acquire the drug. In addition he claimed in an interview with Bloomberg

“that the drug would be available to all those who need it, and that even if
there was a dispute with an insurer the patient would be sent their pills

while things were being sorted.”

Medical response to Shkreli claims for future drug research were such that:

“attributing the price increase to the development of new treatments is
troubling,” Armstrong said, “as pyrimethamine is well-tolerated and has not
shown a decline in effectiveness that would provoke such research.”

“This is not an infection where we have been looking for more effective
drugs,” Armstrong said. “It is a single pill — once a day — that has minimal
side effects and, while it can lead to low blood counts, that effect is very

well-mitigated simply by the coadministration of a vitamin.” (4)
Wendy S. Armstrong, MD

Turing Pharma however thought that:
"Cost and coverage are not obstacles to treatment today ... physicians do
not report high out-of-pocket costs, required prior authorizations, or other
access barriers to toxo medications." (4)

Unfortunately for Shkreli and his board they misread medical resistance: