--- title: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders Attack Martin Shkreli description: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have found a convenient enemy in Martin Shkreli, the widely criticized former hedge fund manager canonical: https://time.com/4078731/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-martin-shkreli/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-19T20:25:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:59.840Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Find Enemy in Drug Exec og:description: Martin Shkreli drew criticism after hiking up the price of an AIDS drug og:url: https://time.com/4078731/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-martin-shkreli/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6d1bd1c7716a113/698868eaab6d77e0d36a6bd4/martin-shkreli.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Martin Shkreli og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Find Enemy in Drug Exec twitter:description: Martin Shkreli drew criticism after hiking up the price of an AIDS drug twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6d1bd1c7716a113/698868eaab6d77e0d36a6bd4/martin-shkreli.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Find Common Enemy in Drug Exec > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 19, 2015 8:25 PM UTC  Martin Shkreli on Aug. 10, 2011 in New York City. Martin Shkreli on Aug. 10, 2011 in New York City. Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 19, 2015 8:25 PM UTC Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have found a convenient enemy in Martin Shkreli, the widely-criticized former hedge fund manager who raised the price of a lifesaving drug, and both the Democratic candidates for president have escalated their attacks on the beleaguered businessman in recent days. Clinton sent letters to the heads of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission asking the agencies to protect consumers from the drug price hike Shkreli engineered at Turing Pharmaceuticals on the medicine Daraprim. Sanders sent out a fundraising letter to his supporters on Monday, touting his refusal to accept money from Shkreli for his presidential campaign. For both Democrats, attacking Shkreli is a safe way to drum up support from the Democratic base, and call attention to a contentious public health issue. Shkreli [achieved notoriety](http://time.com/4072535/martin-shkreli-aids-drug/) when he dramatically increased the price of the rare drug Daraprim, largely used by AIDS patients, from $13.50 to over $750 in order to increase profits. Clinton’s letter to the FDA calls for speedier access to generic versions of Daraprim, urging regulators to expedite reviews of the drug and make them available quickly. In her letter to the FTC, she asked the agency to consider new laws that would reduce Turing’s dominance of the market for Daraprim. Sanders told supporters in his email that when “prescription drug price gouger Martin Shrkreli tried to donate $2,700 to our campaign,” Sanders “donated his money to an AIDS clinic.” “I don’t need money from people like Martin Shkreli and the billionaire class,” Sanders told supporters. “I need you.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4078731/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-martin-shkreli/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4078731/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-martin-shkreli/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Find Common Enemy in Drug Exec","datePublished":"2015-10-19T20:25:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:59.840Z","description":"Martin Shkreli drew criticism after hiking up the price of an AIDS drug","url":"https://time.com/4078731/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-martin-shkreli/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Bernie Sanders"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6d1bd1c7716a113/698868eaab6d77e0d36a6bd4/martin-shkreli.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6d1bd1c7716a113/698868eaab6d77e0d36a6bd4/martin-shkreli.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Martin Shkreli","caption":"Martin Shkreli","creditText":"Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4078731/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-martin-shkreli/","name":"Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Find Common Enemy in Drug Exec"}}]}] ```