Controversial Pharma CEO Says He Should Have Charged More for $750 Pill

The controversial CEO behind the 5,000% hike in the price of a drug often used by AIDS patients says he regrets the increase in price, but only because he didn’t raise the cost of the drug more.

“I probably would have raised the price higher,” Martin Shkreli, founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals said in response to a question about what he would have done differently if he could relive the past couple of months. “I think health care prices are inelastic. I could have raised it higher and made more profits for our shareholders.”

Shkreli spoke at Forbes’ Healthcare Summit on Thursday, where he said his responsibility was making more money for shareholders, despite criticism that his massive price hike would impact vulnerable patients. The CEO raised the price of the drug Daraprim from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill earlier this year, leading to much criticism. He has defended his actions by insisting that very few people actually took the drug, which treats toxoplasmosis, that the price hike was justified.

“My shareholders expect me to make the most profit,” Shkreli said. “That’s the ugly, dirty truth.”

[Forbes]