Shkreli: ‘Of course’ I’d raise drug price again

Former Turing Pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli on Friday reflected on his decision to massively raise the price of an important drug, saying he has no doubt he would do it again if he could.

Shkreli faced criticism last year for raising the price of Daraprim, an anti-infective used to treat AIDS and cancer patients, from $13.50 to $750. 

Asked by Bloomberg whether he would adopt a similar business model in the future, Shkreli answered, “Of course,” adding, “Everybody’s doing it, in capitalism you try to get the highest price you can for a product.”

Shkreli also criticized the public reaction to his price increase but acknowledged he should have been better at predicting the pushback to his business plan.

{mosads}“In terms of regret, I think, maybe not, you know, seeing that as acutely would’ve been a minor regret. But because the price increase has stuck, so to speak, I don’t really — that’s the main mission, which was to raise the price and have it generate increased revenue. That’s happened, so I’m happy with respect to that,” he said.

Asked if his investors have benefited from the price increase of Daraprim, Shkreli said they did but that the public reaction to the price increase was “unexpected.”

“From the cash-flow perspective it makes no difference. In fact, you are better off raising it faster I think,” he said, adding that other aspects of the business, such as the brand name, suffered damage.

During his interview Shkreli expressed confidence about his upcoming securities fraud trial, which is related to his hedge fund activities prior to his work with Turing.

“We’re going to win by a landslide,” he told Bloomberg. “The evidence is clear that I did nothing wrong.”

The federal government is accusing Shkreli of defrauding investors while using his other assets to pay them off.