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What do stackers think of Martin Shkreli?
703 sats \ 26 comments \ @stack_harder 19h AskSN
A bit random, but I wonder since most SN users are free market max, what they think of Martin Shkreli?
For anyone unaware, when he was a pharma CEO, he raised the price of a life-saving drug (Daraprim) for people with weakened immune systems from $13.50 to $750 per pill overnight.
Personally, i think just because you can doesn't mean you should, especially when it comes to medicine
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220 sats \ 12 replies \ @Aardvark 18h
There's nothing free market about pharmaceutical companies. There's tons of "patent protection" laws that suppress generic drugs. The entire industry is over regulated, and the FDA creates massive delays, and hurdles to jump over.
It there were a free market, there would already be a competitor for daraprim and this type of behavior wouldn't be tolerated.
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52 sats \ 9 replies \ @stack_harder OP 17h
I mean, we always get geriatrics eventually. the intersection of pricing and morals in the medical field is an interesting one.
When COVID was kicking off and there was a story going around about this guy who had stockpiled hand sanitiser. Amazon and eBay banned his listings under anti–price gouging policies (he was trying to sell it for 70 dollars a bottle).
He was investigated by the Tennessee Attorney General for price gouging, which is illegal during a state of emergency.
All the sellers in my group (a big Amazon seller group on facebook basically) thought it was a crime and it was just smart arbitrage, but personally, I found it distasteful, bad optics at a minimum. After all, you could jack it up to ten bucks, still make a ton, and it wouldn't have been a big deal.
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99 sats \ 1 reply \ @Aardvark 16h
I'm a pharmaceutical company. I released a drug and have patent protection, I have no competition. My patent protection is running out, so I change the delivery method. Reset the clock.
My patent protection is running out so I get it approved as a treatment for something else. Reset the clock.
Wait, it can treat a third thing? Reset the clock.
Generic medicine is highly suppressed
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152 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder OP 16h
gives me an idea for a post in health about how they used to use old steroid chemicals and change up or add molecules to market new supplements to stay one step ahead of being banned
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10 sats \ 5 replies \ @jgbtc 13h
The advantage of high prices for in-demand goods in emergencies is that people will be less likely to buy more than they need in a panic, and the person who had the foresight to stockpile, or sees an opportunity to bring supplies to an affected area, deserves to be rewarded. This behavior should be encouraged so competition will bring prices back down quickly and people will get the supplies they need.
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10 sats \ 4 replies \ @Aardvark 13h
So to discourage over buying, we allow one person to over buy, and profit off of a disaster....
To be clear, you're defending people who gouge bottled water simply because they had the foresight to know people would be dying of dehydration?
Absolutely not, and I couldn't disagree more. Maybe you've never suffered through a natural disaster, or don't know anyone who has, but gouging isn't helping anyone.
It's literally standing in between life saving supplies and end users for profit, there's nothing benevolent about it.
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10 sats \ 3 replies \ @jgbtc 13h
I'm for getting supplies to people who need them as fast as possible. The government (or anyone else) can buy the gouger out, and so encourage them to restock. Other people will see the opportunity and join in, bringing even more supplies to market and bringing down prices. This would be more efficient and cheaper than whatever centrally planned fiasco the government does. I'm all for decentralized solutions, like bitcoin for example.
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Aardvark 13h
That's a fairly tale explication. In reality, gougers often intercept peoduct that would have otherwise gotten to its destination but they corner the market in a time of high demand.
Even in the example given of the guy gouging hand sanitizer, he wasn't facilitating getting it to people faster. He was slowing down the process by inserting himself as an unneeded middle man for profit.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 13h
Why not punish the buyers for over paying?
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42 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 13h
Blame FDA not Martin. I said this in 2015. My position has not changed
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark 12h
The FDA is absolutely the problem. Martin did what he did because the system says he can. Is he a dick? Yes. Does that mean he's to blame? Nope.
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91 sats \ 0 replies \ @birdeye21 17h
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42 sats \ 1 reply \ @endothermicdev 16h
There are many ways to make fantastic wealth if you're morally uninhibited. I think people like Shkreli tend to get rewarded in an outsized fashion by the economic system and market of the US. Personally, I wouldn't be able to stomach capturing a market to take advantage of desperate people. I'm grateful that a saving technology exists where I don't have to passively support such behavior as with stocks and index etfs.
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42 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder OP 16h
i think there was a glimmer of hope because most people were morally disgusted by him at the time for sure
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31 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 14h
IIRC the price increase wasn't just arbitrary profit maximizing, that narrative was a character assassination by the media to facilitate a later conviction for some completely unrelated hedge fund priors. Everyone thinks he went to jail for the drug stuff, which wasn't the case, this was a political operation.
The drug itself was acquired from a company that otherwise was going to have to stop production of it... so his companies acquisition of it was to make it sustainable else it'd have left the market altogether.
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27 sats \ 1 reply \ @gmd 13h
I really like him, although I'm biased because he followed be back on twitter and has retweeted me in the past.
I think he's really fucking smart. And in a world of where you have pharma on one side that nobody trusts anymore and audience captured health-influencer diet / vitamin peddling grifters on the other side... he actually knows his stuff. Anyone interested in the health space would benefit from following him to get some real perspective on the drug industry.
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63 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 12h
Agree 1000 percent
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @zuspotirko 14h
Shkreli might genuinely be an autistic evil genius
I've seen his analysis shared on some stocks - he compiles data from other trials, digs into the biology papers, reads the options market expectations and accurately predicts 30% stock crashes and gets filthy rich (and sometimes loses a lot). And he has shown that he can do that repeatedly.
On the other hand the way he played wallstreetbets was so unethical. I could not even imagine being this evil if I wanted to.
Martin Shkreli is like what Dr Doofenshmirtz is but unironically and in real life
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @south_korea_ln 15h
Don't like him much, but he was just a fall guy in the end. He was just a small player with a dislikeable character, making it easy to go after him. The real big players in pharma were out of reach and will keep doing what they're doing. Lobbyists are too strong. Nothing changed by going after Shkreli.
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32 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB 17h
Wu-Tang!
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ZezzebbulTheMysterious 1h
A Very bad man. I was told people died from being unable to afford daraprim, despite he claiming no patient was affected.
I believe he has fallen into crypto grifting these days too. He is not a Bitcoiner. He is a bad person, and the world will not forget his actions.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @HardMoney 9h
He seems to be a pretty consistent commentator on markets. Has some interesting insights but also some regarded takes
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @LibertasBR 12h
He takes this attitude because he is “protected” by his patents. In a free market, where patents are not property, he would go bankrupt with this attitude.
About him specifically, I have nothing against or in favor. If I had people I love depending on this medicine, I would wish his death.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan 14h
Marin... who?
Never heard of... so I guess the answer is "I don't (think about Martin Shkreli)".
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