Martin Shkreli Planned to Make $1 Billion on Drug Price Hike

Martin Shkreli thought buying an affordable prescription drug and jacking up the price by more than 50-fold overnight was a billion-dollar idea. “$1bn here we come,” he wrote to the board chairman of his drug company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, before the transaction.

The statement was revealed as part of a congressional inquiry that has brought 25,000 pages of documents about Turing to light. The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating Shkreli’s decision to raise the price of the life-saving drug Daraprim from $13.50 per pill to $750.

“We raised the price from $1,700 per bottle to $75,000,” Shkreli wrote to a contact in August. “Should be a very handsome investment for all of us.”

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The committee plans to hold a hearing on Thursday to discuss whether Shkreli exploited a monopoly to make millions of dollars. He’s been subpoenaed to appear before the committee but has said he plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment.

[CNN Money]