Martin Shkreli

October 24, 2015

IamA Martin Shkreli - CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals - AMA!

My short bio: CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals.

My Proof: twitter.com/martinshkreli is referring to this AMA

What do you think about Relpysa's new drug veltessa to treat hyperkalemia?

I read somewhere that you hate Boston, is that true/why?

Please comment on the critical role of research funded by government agencies such as the NIH in the pharmaceutical industry?

Also: your model relies on funding through vulnerable populations served through PBMs and large benefits providers. Even if all you say is true, any research you undertake is funded directly by the sickest people in our society. Is that okay with you?

Also: why did you delete your helicopter and Petrus tweets? What is your attitude toward amassing personal wealth?

Yes, well. Some feel that the FDA has become an arm of the pharmaceutical industry--"Dracula in charge of the blood bank."

What are some of your favorite books, movies, and tv shows?

PACB? Also, were you shorting IMMY?

PACB? Also, were you shorting IMMY?

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Are those going to have prices only epileptic millionaires can afford?

But don't hedge funds ensure that institutional retirement accounts grow so investors can retire on time, and to ensure that endowments can provide the latest and greatest for their students? Or am i just very naive?

Hey dude, I have a few questions. Would appreciate answers.

1. Does your company do any advertising that requires voice-overs? I can say "Turing" out loud more awesome than others.

2. I do @YourTextSpoken on twitter, the novelty account where tweets are recorded. Would you like something narrated? Here's my SoundCloud you can play in the bg while on Reddit https://soundcloud.com/your_text_spoken

3. What's your favorite childhood movie?

4. Shkreli Deli has a nice ring to it. Are you a sandwich man?

5. Do you ever visit San Diego?

What would be your top 3 biotech/pharm firms to invest in?

Does liking BMRN also mean you're not big on SRPT?

Any short term picks?

What medications are you on right now?

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How does it feel knowing literally the entirely of the world thinks you're an arsehole?

I meant like, as a person.

Honestly, It doesn't affect me because I live over in the UK.

But, as an individual, how do you feel about the way you are portrayed in the media?

Sorry, Bad wording on my part in the initial comment.

WRONG! I called my prescription insurance company, and they will no longer cover Daraprim due to the cost increase. That means if I were to need it, I would have to pay for it out of pocket.

You're like a horse with blinders. You can only see what's right in front of you, and therefore completely ignore the rest of the world.

Could be. For instance retroviral genetic manipulation has been shown to treat cystic fibrosis since the early 1990s. It'll be very exciting to see that kind of thing enter mainstream use.

Kite is where it's at.

what are your top picks for the coming year?

Why is society willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars/year to keep rare disease patients alive? There are tens of thousands of poor dying due to hunger, undernourishment, basic healthcare etc

Will they one day wake up and say enough is enough?

Whats are your thoughts of alcobras metadoxine and do you think there will be other new ADHD medicines hitting the market any time soon?

Come on..... gimme something.

BieberKittah?

What's an average day like for you?

When you say Adam Samberg, do you mean Andy Samberg?

But, are you on a boat? Do you have a yacht? If so can we recreate that video on it?

I'm ridin on a dolphin, doin flips and shit The dolphin's splashin, gettin e'rybody all wet But this ain't Seaworld, this is real as it gets I'm on a boat motherfucker, don't you ever forget

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I don't know anything about pharmaceuticals or it's industry. That being said, why do you insist to portray yourself in such a bad light? Arrogant and smug aren't very appealing.

I am probably more sympathetic to the logic of raising drug prices exponentially in order to raise money for drug research than most on reddit. Each comment is an opportunity to present the arguments for your approach and generate at least some positive PR to people willing to consider your logic. However, you have done a terrible job of presenting those arguments and frequently condescended to people asking questions or expressing their dissatisfaction with your business. Examples from this thread:

This is a grade school discussion. A new drug requires new clinical trials and toxicology work? No kidding!

It was a poorly written, off-topic missive which demonstrated a lack of clear thinking and poor logic.

Anandya's points were worthless uninformed and off-topic.

This is nonsense. You're saying I shouldn't make a drug more specific to t. gondii DHFR-TS and less specific for human DHFR because I should be worried about resistance? Can we get a real infectious disease expert here?

Sounds like you have a strong opinion. Do you have a question?

I don't have the time to refute what you wrote. You seem to think only extremely large companies can afford to conduct R&D when that is plainly wrong. You ignore the contributions my team and I are making to rare diseases. Go away.

Get off your conspiracy theory high horse.

I think you have a warped perspective--I'm sorry you feel that way. What do you do for a living?

Controversial as your business is, the bigger reason you're being so vilified is that you don't explain your stance well and sometimes come off as a dick. You'd be better off avoiding reddit than posting that sort of comment.

You have continuously rejected accusations of profiteering. But how do you justify the very recent explosion in specialty drug costs across the board, which represent one or two percent of prescriptions, and 30% of drug costs in this country?

You had to have Daraprim reclassified as a specialty drug in order to get your hands on all that extra money... how did you do that?

My daughter actually has multiple sclerosis, so I am intimately familiar with the relevant pharmacology. It's not a curable condition through medication, unlike say Hepatitis C. Outside of Copaxone, the available medications are not really very effective against MS and come with a host of serious side effects.

The fact is that a low-saturated-fat diet rich in fish is about twice as effective as the most effective medications against MS flares, as evidenced by the recent HOLISM studies out of Australia. And without the risk of developing a fatal brain infection or leukemia.

They are not, sorry. Maybe someday there will be better ones. But for now, the existing medications offer limited benefits at a sky-high cost both in money and the potential for dangerous side effects.

Your ignorance really is breathtaking.

The fact you think it's incurable shows how little you know. I know of 2 separate remyelination drugs in development. If you can heal the damage you can cure it.

Biogen is in development with their Lingo-1 drug and Omeros (much further off) is targeting an orphan G-protein coupled receptor involved in the remyelination process. It's not happening soon but I don't think it's nearly as far off as the negative Nancy in here is saying. We are entering the Golden Age of medicine. Kids born in 50 years might not even know what disease is.

This makes zero sense. Jacking up the price does not encourage others to enter the market. There is a high entry cost, and the moment a competitor has gotten a drug approved, the price can be brought back down to its initial low value, thus preventing them from recovering their initial investment. So, no, this is profiteering, and the net impact on society is obviously negative: taking money from sick people, to give to an incompetent investor who will waste it away.

1. What were the annualized returns of your fund before you returned capital back to LPs?
2. Favorite investors?
3. Are you upset John Hempton (Bronte) won't let you become an LP?
4. What is John's obsession with your sex life? It's weird.
5. Advice for a 22 yr old research analyst (risk arbitrage) who hopes to launch an event driven fund one day?

"... learn other asset classes." Why would I do that? The theme you're giving off is to "aggregate knowledge and SPECIALIZE." I'll work for you - give me ~10mm to manage. There are a lot of pricing dislocations in small cap event driven situations that I can take advantage of. 10% hurdle rate; 0% for AUM, but 30% of profits above 10%. Unlevered returns of 20% p.a., I promise!!!

The greatest crime committed in pharma industry is poor capital allocation. It is stupid people pursuing drugs that don't work. There are countless biotechs that crash and burn wasting precious capital.

Do you have a solution to this madness?

Can you pay for my student loans? With all this extra money you have? :)

What are your thoughts on the recent M&A activity in the health insurance space? How do you think it will impact the industry long-term?

Hi MS,

I've always been curious about the dynamic between doctors, pharma, and insurances. Obviously the common denominator is the patient, but as a doctor I'm concerned with a sustainable system. My question is this:

What do you think will ultimately make pharmaceutical companies sustainable for incentives to develop cures but also keep them low enough to be available via insurance while simultaneously keeping private insurance affordable to all patients?

Let me rephrase, because I didn't mean to suggest persons can hardly afford healthcare.

We find ourselves always billing the maximum we can because the insurance companies constantly are finding ways to reduce reimbursement. Do you think pharmaceuticals and insurance companies are at a sustainable balance?

they're affordable right now.

are you joking? drugs are bankrupting america. This isn't "affordable."

"Revenue" is irrelevant. Households in the US spend 2x on healthcare for inferior service than what households ex-US spend. This is money that could be spent elsewhere in the economy instead of lining corp. fat-cat's pockets or funding big pharma's advertising budget.

I know you live your life claritin clear, lmfao, but do you take any herbs or vitamins? Do you think any herbs such as ashwaganda or passion flower will be medicines one day? What are your thoughts on magnesium l-threonate?

Hi Martin, thanks for the doing an AMA.

After Hillary made comments & scrutinized the pharmaceutical industry, it negatively impacted relevant stocks. Did her comments impact you, or your portfolio?

Also, can you understand why someone might genuinely think you lack empathy? Maybe against your own will. How do you argue against that?

Can you explain how it works? So we can better relate to your position and philosophy that dictates your decision making abilities.

Just out of curiosity - why/how did you come to that conclusion? I ask because the smartest people I know, including many in the medical profession, have looked at the available evidence and concluded otherwise.

double-blind placebo-controlled

whats a good source to build a design for a double-blind placebo-controlled study? Are there any good academic papers on trial design?

You know what doesn't? A $5 foot-long from Subway! Hook up a bro!

How are you holding up? A lot of people read a little snippet and got furiously butt hurt at you because of click bait headlines.

Whats the real story we didn't read?

Who are the relevant researchers and what kind of credentials do they have? What are they working on, broadly? Which diseases?

I too thought the mark up was ridiculous. I have been following your story and your twitter and I have to say you have completely changed my mind. Your reasoning is sound. You business acumen is amazing. And, as a side note, I think the photos you take when you are relaxed are adorable. You seem to have it all. I've developed a bit of a crush I think. Oh well, a girl can have her fantasies. Where do you think you will move onto once you aren't feeling challenged anymore in pharma?

What part of artificial intelligence specifically?

How is TUR-002 doing in trials and how is it different from other ketamine-like drugs. Do you think these new ketamine-like drugs will the SSRI's of the future?

Way to so obviously create an account to ask yourself a question.

Here's all the posts ever written by this account (created 23 hours ago, and the posts are all 22 hours ago):

~Martin we should lift together bro. Do you plan on getting BO3 or star wars battlefront on the ps4 in the future?

~Do you lift brah?

~What would you do if someone saw you on the street and asked >you to dinner?

~Do you watch supernatural, criminal minds, narcos, gotham, or >hannibal?

~Do you plan on doing a live event or an interview to discuss >various topics in the future ? Maybe at Barnes & Noble or >somewhere else.

~Have you read any self help books and if so which ones changed >your life lol?

~So what a day visit for young adults be a possibility to the future? >I only ask you because I fell you would be the only CEO who would >allow it.

~I'm 18 and am wondering if Turing ever gives day to see what it is >like to be part of a pharmaceutical company and what the job >entails. Is there anyone I can call or email to find out?

~The recent insomnia medicine, belsomra, was proven to be only >slightly more effective then placebo , yet was approved and is very >expensive. Do you think there will be new insomnia medicines as >effective as ambien, lunesta, and rozeram but without the >potential side effects?

~How is TUR-002 doing in trials and how is it different from other >ketamine-like drugs. Do you think these new ketamine-like drugs >will the SSRI's of the future?

~I know you live your life claritin clear, lmfao, but do you take any >herbs or vitamins? Do you think any herbs such as ashwaganda or >passion flower will be medicines one day? What are your thoughts >on magnesium l-threonate?

~Whats are your thoughts of alcobras metadoxine and do you think >there will be other new ADHD medicines hitting the market any >time soon?

~What are some of your favorite books, movies, and tv shows?

~How? Would be fascinating to see a day in the life . Have a lot of respect for you, as your definitely the most unique pharmaceutical CEO I have ever seen.

~Is it possible to get an internship at Turing or just a day visit?

Dude, you're pathetic. No one wants to spend a day with you. No one wants to see you at Barnes & Noble. Quit wagging your dick out there, no one wants to touch it.

You had $55M and claim to want to help patients. You could have used a little of your own ingenuity to create something new but instead you wanted to hold anyone with the particular illness hostage.

What makes you any different from a kidnapper who nabs a tourist and tells their family a price if they ever want to see their relative alive again?

But the truth is, capitalism is full of douchebags like you. I just don't understand why you feel this need for continued media attention. You are not a good person, and you are never going to convince us otherwise.

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Why do you think it's not broken? The USA spends the most per capita on healthcare_per_capita), yet ranks very low among developed countries in infant mortality rates and life expectancy at birth.

Maybe the question should be rephrased... How would you improve the US healthcare system? Because clearly there is room for improvement.

From where you're sitting.

How can you say it's not broken? Have you watched Breaking Bad?

What religion do you belong to?

How big is your R&D arm? Doing some basic research it appears that you have none or is this incorrect?

Earlier you tweeted that you are looking to the possibility of developing a vaccine for taxoplasmosis. Why not spend the $55 million on that instead of Daraprim?

Is Turing IPO postponed due to this Daraprim kerfuffle?

Hey, not sure if you're still here Martin, but I wanted to see if you could clarify a comment you made on Fox earlier. I may have misheard, but you'd mentioned that Turing and Johnson & Johnson are researching intranasal Ketamine for PTSD, is that true?
If it is, how would it differ from the Ketamine that's sold as a street-drug today?

Would you be interested in filming a documentary about your company?

Why would you think this is a good idea?

I'm referring to the Iama on a website that bitterly hates you.

how the fuck does raising a price for something that saves lives help patients

literally no drug company I know of has done something like this. you are killing people.

Nevermind, I don't talk to retards.

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You're so full of shit. Are you literally this full of yourself that you think you're doing the right thing?

Question was: "How does raising the price for a drug that saves lives help that patient?"

Your response: "Everybody does it."

Hrmmmm...

Why purchase a $55 million dollar company if you know you'd have to rise the price of the drug dramatically so you can make a profit out of it?

How does raising the price of a drug dramatically help patients? It's not as if the drugs efficacy was increased so all you'd be doing is reaching directly in their pockets unnecessarily.

Arent there better things to stimulate research for?

Get funding from investors for the research. Not from the patients.

Please explain this thought more. I don't understand how getting funding from investors is the same as charging patients whatever they're willing to pay to save their life.

What advance over the current treatment that you just bought are you hoping for? Don't we already have a safe and effective treatment? What is the inadequacy in your drug that needs to be addressed by additional research?

You need better PR people.

Overcharging for a drug does not stimulate research. If a new drug shows up, you can just start charging less again when it arrives on the market. Thus there is exactly zero additional financial incentive to do research and invent new drugs.

Aren't you begging the question there? You bought a drug company to encourage research and you want to encourage research because you own the company?

Do you think you might get charged with Insurance Fraud? I mean you are basically defrauding the Healthcare system.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1347

(b) With respect to violations of this section, a person need not have actual knowledge of this section or specific intent to commit a violation of this section.

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What are your thoughts on technical analysis? Did you/do you study and actually use it?

You're the man, man.

what are the top picks your staff has this year?

What did MSNBC do to you, that you replied on twitter about?

i dont know?

What's your stance on animal testing?

I haven't got much knowledge about you or your company to ask anything of substance, so I'll go the other way. People seem to have harsh opinions of you, when people recognise you on the street, do you cop it? or are they only vocal online?

Too bad he didn't stab you in the neck.

Hey Martin. I follow you on Twitter and I saw that you posted your phone number to answer questions and talk to people. I had considered calling but thought email would be better. AMA is great but I've too many questions. If I DMd you my email would you be OK with talking?

Step 1) Be rich

Step 2) Leverage richness to produce more richness

Step 3) Lather

Step 4) Rinse

Step 5) Repeat

Parkinsons? :hs:

I'm pretty sure Geoff Rickly would hate you.

How have you and your public relations team dealt with the recent controversy?

Have you individually responded to people that will directly be hurt by drug price increases? Have you spoken to any persons with AIDS who would have died if they didn't have access to the drug you were price gouging?

I'd like to piggyback this comment.

Do you believe you've gotten an appropriate opportunity to defend yourself and your company?

Curious. Are you doing this alone or under the direction of a new (and hopefully better) PR team?

That is, until his company develops a groundbreaking safe and effective toxoplasmosis treatment whose delivery vehicle was discovered through research from additional funds and is able to make regular OTC and prescription medications 10x more effective or some shit.

And then he will be known for that. And the Reddit.com punk ass bitch neckbeard community of teenage mentality socialists will then do an AMA request for Shkreli where they ask how did you find this out, having forgotten that his medications are covered by Obamacare.

Was this awful AMA part of your poor PR response or did you create this train wreck all by yourself?

Have you individually responded to people that will directly be hurt by drug price increases? Have you spoken to any persons with AIDS who would have died if they didn't have access to the drug you were price gouging?

How do you think you're going to handle the fallout when /u/Anandya is quoted by multiple news outlets completely shutting down your reasoning for the price increase?

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did you happen to see this amazing unedited footage of you?

How does it feel now that you see you could have done this more nuanced and out of the public eye like every other pharma company out there? You could have played the game and made off like a bandit with nobody none the wiser. How does it feel to know that your "baller don't-give-a-fuck" posturing and your "hater-baiting" have landed you in a PR scandal highlighting corporate pharma price-hiking that the public will not soon forget? No, no, I'm sincerely interested. How's that ego of yours managing?

They have probably done as well as they can. You can't shine shit.

Late to the party, but here goes: When are you changing your name?

You should take some of your amazing gains in KBIO and start a massive run in $SGNL... A prime rocket target currently way under market value with a good product

How about not /u/martinshkreli is a fucking genius with his money. Someone is jelly they can't fucking prime a rocket and make 1000% overnight. He might get a bad warp but who doesn't. At least her's not raping children or stealing money. Plus the drug is subsidized so shut the fuckidy fuck up.

I'll gladly answer you, provided you will tell me what your exact attitude is toward the amassing of personal wealth (a question I have now asked you four times), and also, provide an exact response to the question: why did you delete your tweets re: Petrus and helicopters?

Why are you so embarrassed that you went to Ba? Not everyone can go to NYU Stern, or Wharton. Why did you leave it off your LinkedIn? Don't be embarrassed.

Read the Rosenbaum Book, any other good reads? Would also love to read the CLDN thesis if possible.

I am 17 and looking to invest, but more short term than most

Seriously.... just put it into a savings account. You'll get a higher ROI than you'd be able to achieve if you tried investing it.

Fazle to update teh site, I imagine,

Will "super-bugs" take out the human race?

What are you contributing to the fight?

Why do you think that the sick and needy (who currently are dependent on Daraprim) should be the ones that pay for your company's research and development? What other sources of funding have you considered?

It's hard to put a dollar value on a person's life when they're dying from AIDS, but I understand your answer in theory. What about my second question: What other sources of funding have you considered?

Does that mean we can expect an IPO soon? I bet you'd be able to raise a lot of R&D capital that way.

So you're saying, the people that can't afford the medicine should just die?

I like you dude. Standing right in front of the reddit hate train and when you hit em with the facts the conversation just ends and you manage to get a whole two upvotes. Fuck the mindless masses who see signs saying "Hate on this dude, the complex answer is too... complex, the simple answer is this is expensive and it shouldn't be! bwaaaaaaa *fist shaking intensifies

Best AMA ever. Rock on. BTW, add me on League: Merser

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Hey the doctor again. Does this mean that we should charge way more for a lot of drugs like Insulin? I mean how much value do we place on a human life. What about Statins?

Do you not think this ethos towards medicine will cause massive gouging of insurance companies who in turn will gouge consumers. As it is the USA has the most expensive healthcare system on the planet and one of the worst in the developed world due to this attitude of pricing things to the value.

In short do you not think that you are putting a price on human lives and that those who cannot pay for it are told to rely on charity rather than a system that's clearly broken?

I am comparing Government spending on nationalised healthcare. In the UK we get care comparable to your privatised healthcare for much cheaper since our hospitals are government run despite the best attempts of people who think like this. And we do it at a third of the cost of what the US government spends on healthcare for providing a much more basic service since the majority of people have insurance to supplement them. When comparing government spending on healthcare alone, the USA spends three times what the UK does per capita.

And we also do research. From a quick googling the USA spends 20 billion a year on Medical Research while the UK spends around 10 Billion. And the EU region would be the largest spender on medical research rather than the UK since most countries spend more per capita.

And your drug hasn't become innovative yet so pricing it as such seems "a tad evil"

Coming from a pre-med student in Canada, this hurt my heart. You can't put a price on a human life. Your response is not a justifiable one.

What's your biggest motivation in life?

Is your VRX/AGN pair trade dollar neutral? What sort of answers are you looking for on Valeant's call on Monday? College GPA?

As an investor in AGN (full disclosure), are you short it because you feel something is wrong with the business or just because of the whole scandal at VRX? Just really curious on the thesis of the short.

How can one invest in you/Turing? Wait on IPO?

what if I lend ya $200?

How about tree fiddy?

Im a female working in a male dominated field (financial services/consulting) do you have any advice for me? Im curious how many women do you have working for you?

Follow up-- do you have any positions available?

Only seeing 20 openings in your site right now. Are there hidden openings not listed?

What are your top 3 biotech short candidates and why?

How does it feel to be ripped-off for $1?

On how you claim that was what you were trying to do all along? Yea, we all see through your bullshit.

What is your view on Autosomal diseases? do you think if the USA loses this "synthetic" subsidy of pricing drugs in a free-market, that it could potentially push out any advances in autosomal disease by +10-20 years due to budget?

What are your thoughts on Cryptocurrency? Bitcoin, Dogecoin, stuff like that.

The recent insomnia medicine, belsomra, was proven to be only slightly more effective then placebo , yet was approved and is very expensive. Do you think there will be new insomnia medicines as effective as ambien, lunesta, and rozeram but without the potential side effects?

How do you think the next year will fare for biotech?

It's been a pretty tumultuous past couple months. Just this past week we've seen BLUE, VRX, and ABBV take some major beatings

why are you mad?

Why are you not mad?... Bro.

Last question. Rosenwald Weiss biotechs... How the fuck are these guy never prosecuted?

But these are the guys that should end up on front page of publications. You know that. Ventrus, Keryx, Coronado.. So many disasters. An eye-watering amount of equity destruction.

Cougar & Repligen? I guess Zytiga wasn't bad (controversial).

Will TGTX be another winner for them?

Thoughts on $AMDA? Was thinking about taking a loan out on my house to go all in.

BTW, you should join us over in /r/wallstreetbets

You are Albanian, what part of Malesia are you from and do you speak Albanian?

So are your parents both Albanian or just one of them

Are you @Wu_Tang_Finance?

I'm 18 and am wondering if Turing ever gives day to see what it is like to be part of a pharmaceutical company and what the job entails. Is there anyone I can call or email to find out?

Any first world diseases you have treatments ready for? Diabetes (Type 2) Obesity Gout

( PS, I just heard you on NPR today and love the work you are doing! )

Technically those diseases are lethal in some cases, not many, but they can still be called lethal diseases.

The media and general public have unfairly depicted you as a 'villain', is it in your companies and your best interests to improve your public image?

On a side note how did you become a CEO in your 20s? #winning

Thoughts on Sanders proposing a Tobin tax on securities trading?

Regarding Concordia Healthcare-- Do you think the VRX model is a sinking ship?

Do you think people actually believe anything you say? How long do you think you will live on this planet?

How long do you think you will live on this planet? We are taking bets and want to hear what you think your over under on your own lifespan.

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You seem to be more into giving a lot of short answers to a lot of questions rather than some really long, more in-depth answers in this AMA, which is fine, but I would like to hear what you have to say about the whole specialty pharmacy arrangement and whether it is a good thing or a bad thing or just a thing. There is so much misinformation out there right now, it's nearly impossible to decipher it without some insider insight. Also, isn't valeant the kind of 'acquire more companies and more debt with no R&D' company that you seem to dislike?

Hi Martin: Excluding Turing, your thoughts on the biggest potential for a smaller sized biotech company is.....????

LOL...ever meet the Baker Brothers? If so, their most impressive trait Is....??

When you were managing money, how would you have described your investment style? Value? GARP? Event driven? I appreciate it that you're answering all questions - you're a great individual.

what would you do if i showed up at your house?

lol google maps is crazy dude, can scout locations like mad and make 3d simulations from the data real easy... funny how photos we take can expose locations real easy. lol just saying, crazy the way people fantasize and Entertain themselves sometimes,

i mean like, you make a good tea or something? got that leet dope liquor?

What have you learned, personally and professionally, from this media incident?

Follow up question: while you work in an industry that addresses illnesses that inflict the body such as cancer, do you think there will ever be a cure for the cancers to our society, specifically people like you?

personally: this is the best possible way to get girls

Seriously?

How in the world is your drug affordable?

Who do you think pays for the insurance... are you legitimately retarded? How are you the CEO of a company holy shit

Did you try to start a super pac?

how actively involved are you with your esports teams?

So I understand your take and am wary of the rhetorical response from much of the left, including the top 2 Dem candidates, but there are unique free market impracticalities to the drug industry. They often operate in virtual monopolies where life or quality of life is at stake, and a collective pays by government mandate for the product via Medicare or mandated health insurance. Simply reasoning that increasing the price of a product by 5000% to fund future drug development ignores that using that justification could mean one could charge a near infinite price for their drug. The end user doesn't individually pay for it, nor does the doctor prescribing or administering it, so normal free market supply and demand price discovery does not apply.

Broader issue is that without price controls as medicine discovers more drugs to treat patients for what ails them and the inflation rate for healthcare vastly exceeds the overall inflation rate, a cost bubble becomes non sustainable. It's an extension the so-called "death panels" debate that raged when Obamacare was enacted, where obscene amounts of end of life care money could be spent to slightly improve and/or extend life, treating everyone for everything they suffer from no matter the costs eventually doesn't work.

What say you about my reservations?

I suppose I just have a hard time seeing that from my specific perspective as a hemophiliac. My medicine costs around $600,000 a year if I'm taking it for prevention, which would basically be the case if I was working any job. A cure for hemophilia would completely end that streamline of indefinite cash. Mind you, I've maxed out every insurance plan I've had to the point that I'm currently on Medicaid, so taxpayers are spotting the cost if I should choose to get off my paltry disability sum and decide to work.

Capitalism works very well for innovation, but I see it resulting in such uneven power allocation that obsolete businesses will stifle competition and anything that might lead to their loss of income. We can look to many different examples in the past where companies have fought known science in order to continue their reign. Leaded gas, cigarettes, fuel and climate change, unhealthy foods. There's a huge problem with that type of incentive to always make more money.

I respect donating all of your money away. But in the meantime, how much do you spend per year on your lifestyle? How much (in US dollars) do you donate each year on average?

Are you giving your money to the people who need Daraprim? Seems to me like they're getting majorly screwed over in all of this. It made me very happy to read that an alternative has been made at a sane price.

Can you please provide details of your long $vrx short $agn trade? For example, entry prices, dollar neutral, stops? Thanks!

What do you think of that lady who went to mexico and supposedly had gene therapy preformed on her. Could that be legit?

Yeah but is it known to be efficacious in humans?

So you bought the rights to the drug supposedly because that would render the drug profitable after the price raise and thus encourage additional research on the disease. How is this going to work out now that some other company created a generic of it and sells it for 1 dollar?

You knew this would happen eventually so I don't think your aim was actually to kickstart a research on the drug but to turn a quick profit on it before the generic eventually turned up. In short, my question is, is the drug profitable for you at this point and if not, how do you explain your strategy?

It seems like a logical move to do if you're interested in the industry and the people affected by it.

I have no real knowledge of the sector so I'd guess it'd be quite common for corporations to buy out and kickstart drugs like you did but it seems like you attracted the most attention and bad press about it. Why do you think that is?

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what are your favorite subreddits?

Curious to know about your philanthropic ventures - do you have bias and favoritism towards certain sectors and/or organizations? Not all are good eggs, but thank you for giving back to society.

How much do you control where you dollars are spent? (ie: on certain programs, minimizing admin costs, etc.) I've never donated on the scale that you have, but I think I'd certainly control where my money is spent (even when I work in non-profit healthcare and know the inner workings)

I'm at a full bias, but the world of Alzheimer's could really use your philanthropic arm. Current medications out there that are supposed to alleviate symptoms do nothing and not too many care for aging diseases (through my lens anyway).

You have mentioned in other questions about how Hedge Funds have changed since you worked in one. In what ways have they changed that makes them not as attractive from a business standpoint?

What alternative paths would you suggest to those who are coming out of Universities with an Economics focus?

One last question from me, I know it is smart to invest where you have an edge but do you do any research or investing outside of the biotech/health sector? I guess this is also a question on diversification.

y u such a dick tho?

nah pretty sure ur a dick

As a hedge fund manager and CEO of a biotech company, what advice would you give to start-up bios seeking early-stage capital?

Besides angel-investors what are good non-vc options?

Have you read any self help books and if so which ones changed your life lol?

what do you think about this: what if all trade secrets about pharmaceuticals, all knowledge discovered in the field was freely available to all people instead of.. kept as trade secrets?

Would you recommend me switching from a computer science major to an economics major?

Could you please pay my rent for the rest of this semester?

Pretty please?

Who is your favorite Pro-wrestler?

Correct answer was JOHN CENA

How does a high school graduate living in Washington state get a job at Turing?

Where would I start?

Did you ever think your decision may lead the death of a person or people using the drug?

How does it feel to be a giant cunt, Martin?

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have you considered that maybe people hate you because of your controversial stance on updog?

not much lol what's up with you

my greatest hope is that someday the overprivileged people like you who grow like barnacles on the ship that is the modern economy will have all of your undeserved power taken away and given to the workers who do the work that you profit off of. your entire career is an illustration of everything that is wrong with capitalism

I'm sorry you're such a cunt

Being wealthy do you ever think about one day dropping a life changing gift on a lower class family at random? If so, would you like to meet mine?

How's your wrist from "punching" that wall?

Increasing the price- was it intentionally supposed to generate such public outrage?

What is the one fact that people could know so that they could stop hating you?

In your opinion, is capitalism the best economic theory, at least for the States? If so, why?

What do you think about the fact that all major pharmaceutical companies stopped developing new antibiotics/investing in antibiotic research due to low ROI, and antibiotic resistant bacteria is becoming an increasing risk? Do you think your model of pricing could work to boost research in that industry as well or government subsidies are the only feasible way?

Have you received any threats because of the price hike?

I sent you a PM weeks back but you didnt respond. How many push-ups can you do right now without stopping?

What do you think is the most misunderstood thing about you and what you have done?

What do you think of that new drug that is aiming to compete with yours and only costs 1.26$?

What did you hope to accomplish by raising the price on Daraprim?

You do realize that you're indirectly killing people who can't afford your hyper-inflated drug prices, right?

Wasn't your original answer to this question "to keep my investors happy"? How's that working out thus far? :)

Did you at any point contribute to that research?

If an insurance company was previously paying $13 per pill, and is now paying $750, where is that extra money being made up? Is it just a loss on the company's profit margins, are rates being raised, what is it? I ask this honestly as I truly don't have much knowledge on how this industry works.

So I understand the price hike; basically it's to help kickstart funding into R&D, etc etc. But was it worth it to almost completely sully your name, just in an attempt to be the underdog good guy in the end [aka to help others]? As CEO, how many people on the board disagreed/was it your idea? Also, you should get new board members.

So how does it feel to be real life Tyrell Wellick?

Don't you fear that if you walk outside someone will murder you?

In fact, when was the last time you've interacted with a normal person?

So do you regularly encounter people who antagonize you?

Because, as you may be aware, a huge number of "normal" people hate you.

Also, do you vote republican or democrat? (don't feel the need to answer)

Also, have you considered getting a PR advisor? In case you already have one, he isn't doing a very good job.

See, that's the thing. A lot (really a lot) of people feel very strongly about you and I don't think you've actually met any of those -except for one shouting match you've mentioned-. Lots of people have family and friends who are cancer and AIDS patients (even if they don't take Daraprim) and they have legit reasons to hate you.

If what you claim about the drug is true, it must be way too hard for you to explain your logic to these people, but you should understand that these reasons are real and these people exist.

I hope you don't interpret this as a threat. I consider myself neutral on the issue, and to be fair, some of your answers seem consistent.

But I'd be careful if I were you.

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Any advice for young people looking to get into investing?

There are a ton of people that REALLY hate you. And for good reason. How can you justifiably raise the cost of a life saving medication that much?

Do you plan on doing a live event or an interview to discuss various topics in the future ? Maybe at Barnes & Noble or somewhere else.

Why are you such a fucking dick raising the price of pills like this so the people who really needs it can't afford it anymore?

yeah, to rich people and all the other kids with trust funds, but the regular middle class people of this planet can't. but i guess the generic one will have to suffice.

What is your opinion on Obama care ? Also , who do you support in the upcoming presidential election.

I often come to the conclusion that capitalism can only be harmful, for some if not for all. Your goal, as you seem to be expressing, is to educate and overturn misconceptions- what would you say in response to this idea?

I personally think you are a unethical hack. Anywho my question to you is this.

Why raise a price of drug so astronomically high to "make profit margin" when its shown in any free market other drugs that compete with this will be cheaper and more likely to be prescribed?

How has your experience in League of Legends /Esports been, and do you play any games?

Favorite role and champion?

Do you have a preferred lane?

What can we as a society (lawmakers, physicians, pharm companies) do to make drug research faster and make the drugs more affordable for the patients?

In a few sentences, how would like the general public to understand why Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired and then increased the price of Diaprim? How does this benefit your company, patients who need this drug, and the industry overall?

If you dont mind me asking, what is the new price? For those of us living under a rock.

Are domesticated cats in any way involved in toxoplasmosis?

Also- would patients have had to pay all that difference ? Or would the cost have been absorbed somewhere else.

Since a new drug came out that's almost the same as your company's for such a cheap price, how do expect to turn a profit now?

You're right, excuse me. I meant when it gets approved, how do you expect to turn a profit?

Hi Martin, thanks for the AMA. In a comment you say 'drugs should be priced at the value they provide' but what if the drug is cheap to manufacture? Wouldn't it make more sense to lower the price of the drug to try and combat the illness more effectively? And would you differentiate prices between a drug which cures an illness and a drug which postpones an illness? Both may provide similar value.

I see. Could you please explain?

Look, I know you know what you are doing is wrong. And we both know you aren't a heartless monster because you are enjoying the attention from this. I don't think your a bad person and I hope you can see the errors of your ways and help the world again. I don't support the threats and anger people spew at you, anger isn't about you it's about what's in them. My question is, why do this? Why hurt other people for profit? It doesn't have to be this way.

Hi Martin,

Apparently we both have a similar taste in music, specifically post hardcore bands, as I read an article that noted you were a financial backer of Collect Records. They were forced to cut ties with you due to what on the surface looks to be a clear conflict in ideologies between your pharma company and the punk/DIY mentality. Do you have any thoughts on how that played out?

Honestly, I kind of feel bad for you about that. I'm sure Collect was a passion project you felt strongly about.

What is the one thing you want the public to know about you?

and also, Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck, or a hundred duck-sized horses?

What are your thoughts on alternate methods of funding drug discovery, such as the bounty system that has been discussed (basically, governments pool together a bounty for a disease, successful drugs recieve the bounty, then the drug is sold for cheap). Do you think this is something that could work broadly across pharmaceutical development? Alternatively, is this something that might work for rare diseases or tropical diseases that tend to primarily effect lower wealth nations?

So if you know most of Reddit doesnt like you, why do an iama?

But theres a bunch of butt-hurts mass downvoting most of your responses on here

Tomorrow's headlines will read "Martin Shkreli thinks MrKrazybones is cool!"

How do you sleep at night? Like really I want to know how to manage to suppress all the guilt and hatred you must feel and others feel for you.

It must be hard to not think about your own opinions.

How do you live with yourself?

In a perfect world, what do you think is the best way to get funding for medical/pharmaceutical research?

In our real world?

cool man, thanks for the quick reply. I may not agree with all your ideas, but you don't seem like the cartoon bad guy stereotype I thought you were before

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Hello Martin! In light of Imprimis Pharmaceuticals announcing a compound alternative, have you considered investing in a compounding pharmacy yourself? Some compounding pharmacies can't afford all the FDA hoops, but surely one with your backing could, and it would be a pseudo drug manufacturer. Think about it, not only could you have a pipeline, but also sell the pipeline variation products as compounds in the meantime (although insurance wouldn't pay until FDA approves them, but the exposure is there).

How do you feel about full frontal male nudity?

Riddle me this: What was it about this particular drug that made you hone in on increasing the price exponentially to further HIV studies? As well, this particular drug is targeted for a certain segment of the AIDs population, so looking from a financial stance, it appears (and dispute if you deem necessary)--- take one segment, up the price, and profit the increase. Why didn't you go for the mass, as opposed to a certain segment? It appears this is biased profiteering. No?

Since you are involved with the pharmaceutical industry and have been coming under scrutiny for sketchy business practices I was wondering what your thoughts are on Purdue Pharmaceuticals, the Sackler family and how they influenced/manipulated the distribution of oxycontin, and how they have admitted to fraud around the distribution of information about oxycontin?

Here is an article that I really enjoyed and found as a great piece of investigative journalism.

https://medium.com/@jasisrad/kingpins-1fa9331c705d#.4a6hjhczn

Thanks!

What actually happened?

What I mean by that is: in detail, describe and defend your rationale behind hiking up the price of that drug in terms that the reddit community can understand.

How on earth did you become CEO?

what do you think about bernie not accepting your donation?

also what about the company thats selling the same drug for a lot less?

if you think he is pathetic why would you donate?

or did your opinion about him change after he rejected the donation

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Why are you a fuckboi?

How can I get a date with you? :)

is there a way to skip to the front of the line?

If the FDA did not exist an instead private groups(like underwriters laboratories) handled testing.

If drugs could be more easily imported into the US.

If 3rd parties and the government did not pay a penny in drug costs and it were all paid by private individuals or pharma outlets.

And if the majority of countries around the world did not participate in collective bargaining with US Pharma companies... (as in paid like Americans do)

How would that effect you ability to price a drug, and profit from a drug?

Which part? Imports?

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What bands are you listening to these days?

What are your thoughts on Kendrick Lamars new album, To Pimp a Butterfly?

How much would you pay me to be the one person on this earth to not think you are an abysmal person?

'Sup between you and that Eve chica from Twitter?

nice fake attempt at some damage control here. You can answer all the questions you want and pretend to be a nice and cool guy, but we all know that you're a scum bag. No further questions.

Do you have any daily rituals, such as meditation, that help You be successful and happy? Any self help books to recommend?

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How hype are you for CAR-T? On a scale of 1 to hype

Is regen-med too far out?

finally we make sure everyone can afford the medicine.

Just... how far up your own ass are you? How does raising the price of a particular medicine by 5000% make it so everyone can afford it?

No, he's a lying fuck:

See page 28 https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/76xx/doc7615/10-02-drugr-d.pdf[1] For more current numbers see page 2 http://www.researchamerica.org/sites/default/files/uploads/healthdollar12.pdf

Not only is there more private investment, those private dollars go much much much farther. Pharmaceutical companies & biotech­nology companies make up some 70% of the new drug market.

You really do. And you should not make public appearances.

I say this as a person who understands (and as much as it hurts to say... agrees with) your business strategy.

YOU ARE NOT CHARISMATIC, please remember that.

Giving your wealth to who, exactly?

You tweeted a photograph of a bottle of 1979 Petrus with the price. No "friend" who gave you this wine was mentioned. This tweet, as well as others featuring other expensive bottles of wine, a yacht and a helicopter have also been deleted. Now, really laughably, you claim humility and say that these (multiple) grossly, embarrassingly wealth-obsessed consumerist tweets don't reflect "the real you." ok sure.

You think yourself "intelligent" (snort), you think you can snow people with your glibness but trust me, but there are a lot of us out here who are not fooled.

I feel like the reason things have blown up the way they have is not because you are a bad person running a bad company, but that you are merely awful at public relations and explaining your actions that - on the face - rightfully cause outrage.

Given that, I have a few questions, maybe if you try explain things openly and honestly people will be a bit less inflammatory:

1. Why did your company increase the price of the pill from $14 to $750

2. As a result of this action, would any single US patient be put in a position where the life saving medication they need would now be inaccessible to them due to lack of affordability? If not explain why.

3. While there is obviously importance for the pharma industry to funnel profits into researching new and better medications - how can this be balanced with the present needs of patients who need access to affordable medication right now? What does your comapny do to ensure it is not responsible for the denial of life saving medication to dying people?

I'm not very familiar with the way the pharmaceutical industry works, but who pays the extra cost of the drug?

So just to summarise how I view the situation, and I might be wrong:

To the public, when we hear "price for important medicine increased from $14 to $750" this creates the idea that people are suddenly being denied access to the medication they need due to an evil corporation letting people die for profits.

But in reality, consumers with insurance were completely unaffected, those without insurance are still able to access the drug affordably and your company is ensuring that, and on top of both those things you now have funds for researching even better drugs for the future.

If my understanding is correct I think you would have saved yourself an awful lot of trouble if your hr reps managed to explain this clearly and unambiguously from the start.

I, amazingly, may actually agree with you about the research into nonprofitable diseases. I'm really shocked to say this. I'm a pharmacist, and a current doctoral candidate, who as recently as Thursday spoke at length about how horrible your decision was.

But...I think I was wrong.

Even when I went to undergrad we were simply told that pharmaceutical companies would no longer do research on rare diseases or conditions since there was no money to be made. And in practice I have seen that to be true. I don't necessarily agree with you, but it simply may be the only way to research these conditions. It actually makes sense

Like, when has toxoplasmosis been in the news? Hell at this point another company may start to do research on it just for the PR alone.

You disingenuous POS. You KNOW that the insurance companies and corporations don't pay for it - the INSURED do! EVERYONE does via increased premiums (and the wonderful right-wing asswipes will gladly blame Obama for your piss-poor business decisions! And YES, insurance companies are always looking to save money on drug costs!

Martin you know the premiums were going up anyway. Daraprim is a pimple on a gnat's ass compared to like hydrocodone or gilead hep c med for sure.

The premiums were going up anyway. You didn't have any affect whatsoever. Tell them the truth. You got fucked in the media because racketeering is easy politics.

I got your back as I have stated since the tweet. But you didn't have affect on premiums. Don't fall on that sword. Do the research instead brother. And you need to file libel allegations against these opportunistic seekers of presidential glory.

What are your hobbies? What do you like doing in your free time?

that punch to the wall bs was really unnecassary since you posted a picture of yourself playing a guitar literally an hour after. Was that on purpose? really what do you expect the people to think?

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Thanks for answering so many questions. You aren't too bad a guy. Just a straight shooter.

Is there a site I can use to find potential market size of novel stuff?

For example I've been looking at Tinnitus (Chronic & Acute), no "real" treatment is available so far.

Thank you for the answers, should I look at the attractiveness factor of treatments as well (ie. injection VS drop)? Feel like injections might be less attractive. sry if dumb question.

Thank you for doing this AMA. It is necessary for private sector companies such as Turing Pharmaceuticals to charge large amounts for drugs with high research costs and small target populations to help to recoup their expenses and fund further research. This is why you are such a target of criticism now. Do you think it would be best for humanity to completely publicized drug discovery research so the return on investment would be in the form of a more productive a populace rather than net gain per pill?

FNC or Koo tomorrow? Also, where does esports go from here? Is it a fad, or will it continue to thrive to the distant future?

You've said the rise in the cost of Daraprim won't effect most patients because the insurance companies will absorb the cost. Does it not stand to reason though that the insurance companies will pass those cost back along to the policy holders who pay the premiums. How does that argument not perpetuate the problem of out of control medical cost?

Hey man, don't listen to these hostile fucks on reddit, seriously... they have no idea what the fuck they are talking about.

Anyway, how long have you been in the pharma business?

Taking back Sunday or Brand New?

False. New Found Glory.

What's the size of your cock?

What originally made you interested in the pharmaceutical industry ?

was there something in particular that made the clinical side of things less attractive ?

How did you get into esports? What does it mean for you now that Odyssey merged with Imagine?

As a biotech investor and also a short-seller, do you think that the biotech crash brought on by the news piece about you and a subsequent Hillary Clinton tweet was a genuine crash made by nervous sellers, or a façade to hide a massive campaign of short-selling?

Have you ever played Dota 2? What are your thoughts on it against LoL?

do you have any statistics to back up your claim that the majority of patients are not affected by the price increase?

Just the avg cost before vs the avg current cost?

This guy is a cunt

/u/martinshkreli when asked earlier if you were using sock puppets or other means to artificially inflate your presence in this thread you said "of course not". However there are a large number of accounts created within the last few hours that have only participated in this thread and have lobbed softball questions for you to answer. Any comment?

Accounts such as:

/u/adamaxr

/u/bunchafuckwits

/u/confound2000

/u/cottonpicker2

/u/dankprofessor

/u/faboreno

/u/GjonDemiri

/u/HopeForPa

/u/LoyalFollower

/u/LucySnowwhite

/u/MergerArbitrage

/u/michelle34

/u/misnomerful

/u/mjuhl1994

/u/Neelny

/u/newbietothiss

/u/NicoEnea

/u/papaoaaoaia

/u/patientvalue101

/u/rayofsun0777

/u/Serene-Silence

/u/Shkrelidelic

/u/Sweetass823

/u/TheMatSnow

/u/wt05

/u/Zyneterin

I'm gonna give him credit for this thread. He's answering a lot of questions and he answered both my questions.

That's a lot more than can be said about other people.

I don't understand how this exact question keeps popping up in every AMA. There's a reason Reddit has an app specifically for this sub; each high-profile thread brings a ton of newcomers onto Reddit just because they're interested in the AMA itself. It's a major way that Reddit keeps new users flowing in.

Yeah, I know but your peers aren't everyone. The overwhelming majority hate this guy with a passion. Click on the Shares thing on Reddit FB page as well.

My name is on the above list and I would just like to point out that the reason i started this account was to converse with Martin himself. I find it funny that you think a millionaire CEO would create fake reddit accounts to ask himself questions...

That's probably true, but you're still a fucking cunt

Do you think the price of 35 gold per health/ mana potion is economically viable? :) Big fan

What is your best advice for networking with people on the street? You've seem to done a pretty good job of it.

What's a book I should add to my reading list?

Have you played chess with thiel

Do you play any CS:GO Martin? huge fan btw :)

I know the focus is on all of the controversy right now, but I have a different type of question. You are a very well educated successful man, what ways could you suggest that one could raise funds for a startup foundation? I was recently diagnosed with MS and have started a foundation to help MS families with out of pocket expenses.

If you could go back in time to the day before you announced the price increase, what would you do differently going forward, if anything?

How about do it GRADUALLY SO PEOPLE DON'T NOTICE.

One cannot gradually increase a drug price by 5000% without nobody noticing lol it's ridiculous

They did it to college tuition. No one even batted an eye.

interesting that you didn't say "stop myself from increasing the price"

Note that he doesn't say not increase the price.

Or even change it to a reasonable increase, say from $13 to $20...

How did you come up with $750 price tag? Why not $20, $100 or $10,000 ?

So you're trying to put a price on one's life?

Why do you think this has not been addressed by your like-priced competitors?

Cost of production (materials, labor, machines) then throw on a bit more for research costs and a reasonable profit margin. That profit margin doesn't need to be an insane amount. If they were able to sell the pill at a lower price and still maintain making profits with overhead costs, what warrants the huge increase?

People here are crazy. Understand some things about business and insurance before piling on the guy. The previous maker of the drug even had to stop making the drug several times because they were losing so much money on it. This way, insurance picks up the bill and the company helps the patient with co payments.

After all this media outrage, please explain to the world exactly why a price hike of 5000% is justifiable (taking into account that various doctors around the world have argued that your drug doesn't need further research)? Are they wrong? If they aren't, don't you think it is ethically wrong to make your patients of the drug carry the costs of other ventures? I mean since youre a 'capitalist', that wouldnt be very free-market of you would it?

Do you... care that almost everyone hates you?

How you feelin' man? All this must be pretty stressful

Just want you to know I think you're a good person. I don't get the reasoning behind the price hike, probably because I'm only 17, but I believe that you'll use that money to help people. I wish Bernie saw it the same way it would of been interesting to see you guys talk. Good luck with your LoL team btw.

Would you agree with the statement tat you look like the gay Tony Stark?

It's awesome that you are answering so many questions -- thank you.

Actually I have two more questions.

1) First, how do you convince people to invest in a new hedge fund? How much of it is luck and how much of it is perspiration?

2) I recently invested in Zafgen, a company with a fat-reducing drug that fell over 70% after a death in a Phase 3 trial of Prader-Willi syndrome patients. (the death rate is therefore ~1.5%, but average death rate is 3% for PWS sufferers) From reading some of your story it seems you were twice on the opposite side, shorting stocks of drugs that you believed would ultimately be unsafe and/or should not be approved. (though, both got approved). That is what we know publicly, but what would you say is your balance of short to long ideas/positions?

what do you think of Novartis' trial for PD using nilotinib? We need more promoters of autophagy in the clinical for neurodegenerative disease, IMO. Also, your thoughts on antisense oligonucleotides for repeat expansion disorders?

Favorite pokemon?

My question is....do or did you actually think this is going to end well?

You seem less salty in your responses compared to earlier posts. Are you consuming less sodium?

Do you invest across the capital structure? Also, how much due diligence did you *actually perform on valeant? Is it just a statistical relative value play? Kind regards, Martin. When do you sleep?

no you're pretty hated.

You're pretty high up there. I see where you're coming from and I honestly see some of your points but I think you're going about it in a Trumpy way. Are you trolling for the sake of trolling or are you using a haters are a good thing Justin Bieber/any other rapper mindset?

You're probably not the most hated living person in the world right now but you're definitely in the top 10.

[deleted]

I asked this as a stand-alone question.. but here I am asking you again.

So, how many bodyguards do you require in order to protect yourself and afford yourself the chance of a healthy and pleasant lifetime - the very thing you have stolen from the hands of many, including children?

How does it feel to be one of the most hated people on earth right now? How did it feel when Bernie gave away your campaign donation?

You're not the only problem, ya egomaniac, you're perpetuating an existing one.

Luckily for me, I live in a country where healthcare is a basic human right (as it should be).

Your patients are not the only ones who are affected by your decision and you know that.

You're in a position to save lives and change the world for the better and you choose not to take that opportunity, therefore you are to blame. As long as you are perpetuating the mentality that we should have to be rich to be alive, you're part of the problem that is all over America and other countries.

People might think you have the right to do exactly what you want but with great power comes great responsibility and it IS your responsibility to save lives because you can.

I don't think I'm the most hated person

top ten at least.

What would be the hotter mixtape: ABBV + GILD announce sudden merger to dominate Hep C, or What a Time to Be Alive?

What was your best subject in school?

Why did you make your Twitter account private then public again?

Are you aware that it is a symptom of sociopathy to not be bothered by resounding negative stress? Having no sympathy for animals or humans is also a symptom of sociopathy, as is a desire for amassing and spending wealth. In this AMA, you've repeatedly revealed that you were "not bothered at all" which is strange considering the amount of negativity which you have been exposed to as a result of you and your company's actions. You've also failed to provide a satisfactory answer, that wasn't an attempt to misdirect or charm (which are additional symptoms of sociopathy), as to why you thought your action was acceptable in the first place. Consider that you may need to speak with a psychiatrist for your future well being, as sociopaths often have trouble managing themselves without psychiatric help.

What is your opinion on the use of psychedelic substances as highly effective, but stigmatised, treatments for anxiety, PTSD, depression, and many other mental disorders. Would you ever consider lobbying for their legality as a medicine?

Also, prior to reading this AMA, I unjustifiably jumped on the hatred bandwagon, because I am spoonfed media, and I am currently experiencing some cognitive dissonance. I know that one person isn't important in the grand scheme of things, but for what it's worth, sorry I hated you. Do you really think other companies will start developing competing medicines?

Can you explain the ketamine thing, in layman's terms? im curious. how does it work to treat depression, ptsd, etc, and what are the pros and cons?

In hindsight, what (if anything) would you have done differently with Daraprim? Would you have even bought it?

Out of interest, why do you work so hard for no salary? is this a means to an end?

do you intend to ever receive a salary from Turing?

Why can't you just fucking die already?

You claim the price increase is better for patients because they will probably get a better treatment. But what if you don't achieve anything? You are making people pay for something that may never happen.

Strategies to work with this? http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/10/drug-with-rage-inducing-5000-price-hike-now-has-1pill-competitor/

Assuming it becomes FDA approved? Unless there's a reason it wouldn't.

But they offer bottom-dollar alternative compounds that are just as efficacious.

What is your role in the r&d of the new toxo drug?

thats

not an asnwer to the question...

who wants to do business with you now that you have the reputation that you've earned?

What was the first thing that got you interested in pharmaceuticals?

You have, as you've said yourself, acted quite poorly on social media in response to questions recently. Why? Why did you continue to respond to these messages and exacerbate the situation to this level?

And what do you plan to do about this mistake?

It seems convenient that you are suddenly willing to step back and look at your actions only days after Imprimis Pharmaceuticals released a drug pricing that drastically undercuts your cost. This timing does not add to your credibility.

You have been aggressive and evasive on social media when approached with direct questions previously. Why the sudden change in attitude?

Wow, so it's just a coincidence you showing up here just a few days after Imprimis came out with it's alternative? That's amazing, because before you were content to sit on Twitter and sarcastically bait Bernie Sanders fans, and your previous appearances on reddit speak for themselves, but suddenly here you are, all pentitence, trying to calmly explain yourself. This honestly comes off as incredibly disingenuous.

Do you watch supernatural, criminal minds, narcos, gotham, or hannibal?

From the point of where you purchased the drug and raised the price until now, have you noticed any (if so) changes to your corporation or it's reputation?

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Does your company have any need for Pharmacoepidemiologists?

Two questions:

1) What do you think about the Affordable Care Act, in theory and and in practice now that we're a ways into its implementation? Is government-mandated insurance a good idea in your opinion?

2) If you could change one major aspect of the American medical system, what would it be?

would you consider yourself to be more conservative or liberal?

Hey,

I actually graduated from the same school as you! Did you ever take any classes with Kamich, Rentzler, Francis?

During your fox business interview you said you have a salary of $0, but you also said you gave $5M-10M to charity last year. How do you make money on a $0 salary?

Yeah dumb question. I did some research and saw. 1. e4

You don't play Sicilian, I'm not sure we can be friends. 2. d4

Why don't you use capital letters?

What would you do if someone saw you on the street and asked you to dinner?

Aren't you just pouring more gasoline into the fire by doing this AMA?

Good luck in your future and its endeavors.

/u/martinshkreli better pump and dump... The Tangs, or the outright criminals behind ITCI and their fake drug?

I live and work as a doctor in argentina, which could be considered a developing country. We provide universal health care for free to everyone. This price increase will have an incredible impact on our health system. Would you consider special prices for cases our country also?

You've stated here that your company will ensure the uninsured have access to Daraprim. How exactly does that work in a real life scenario?

If I'm at the doctors without insurance and discover I need it, how long and complicated will the process be?

Do you think the reason health care is so hard to obtain for the poor in this country has anything to do with insurance companies passing along the costs of astronomically expensive drugs like yours to those of us that are paying for health insurance?

You're seriously telling me that your argument of "it's fine, the insurance companies will pick up the tab" isn't absolutely fucking the middle class who is paying for their own health care and getting the costs of your bullshit price increases passed along to them?

How much do you pay for your personal health insurance? Do you even have any idea?

You know what, don't bother with another one of your non-answers.

Go fuck yourself, you smug piece of shit.

Why don't you tell me the exact percentage, since you've got all the answers? Or is this just another deflecting non-answer like every other time when anyone asked you for sources and you failed to provide them?

This article is literally the first hit when I googled "cost of drugs contributing to health care costs".

Or how about this one from Merck? The very beginning of the article says: "Health care costs in the US are disproportionately high for many reasons. Use of costly new technologies and drugs. Such use may be the largest single factor increasing health care costs. "

Good thing you went on social media to improve your image, didn't answer any questions, and reinforced your public persona of a smug, delusional man-child who's only profiting off of the work of others and flaws in the American health care system.

Why is your public image so important to you right now? I mean, it seems vain, doesn't it? I see you're saying you're in the business to help people, but why are you trying to convince people your actions are commendable? Shouldn't your actions be able to speak for themselves?

Maybe you can invent a drug that prohibits people from trolling. Test it on yourself.

Does your company have a patient assistance program? I assume when you say no patient is being priced out of this drug that, in addition to the insured who pay a copay or co-insurance, you must have something in place that helps the uninsured. Can you describe that program/assistance in terms of who qualifies and how many folks have been assisted? I see ads for these PAPs at big pharma companies (if you can't pay for your medications, company X can help ) but when the disabled and unemployed patient I know applied with no current income, he did not qualify. How does Turing assist those uninsured patients who can't bear the price hike? Thanks.

Because you simply don't have that.

Just fucking die will you?

What's the craziest thing someone has said/done to you while walking around in public since this whole thing happened?

Wow, huh... have you read the 2013 letter? Assuming it is all true, this former employee basically stole 1.6 million dollars in stock. Presumably Mr. Shkreli could have written his employee contracts better to avoid the entire incident. Anyway it was legally settled if you read the bottom of it.

what's your favorite color?

Hi Martin. Do you ever practice Yoga? Do you like to play musical instruments?

Ah, a business hippie.

Do you feel that there is space for "open source" or "dual" licensing of biotechnology similar to that deployed by Red Hat or Canonical in software development? An example that comes to mind is offering a freely licensed product such as information on a particular drug compound and then offering consultation services on top of it.

That's what I've gathered doing background reading - there's a big issue with funding and ensuring that the business model remains economically viable. What is your opinion on patent pooling or defensive patenting (bearing in mind that your work with generics might not take you into this area that much)?

Are you hyped for Fallout 4?

Hey dude, I'm not too versed on what you and your company did, so I'm not gunna talk about that. I just wanted to say your music taste rocks! As for the question, have you ever seen Brand New live? I did and it was 10/10

Hi Martin, thank you for doing this AMA.

Question 1. I've been wondering this: what is your reaction to the sheer volume of people who will simply look at a headline and accuse you of being this evil, terrible person, without actually reading into any of the articles or looking into any of the context behind it, regardless of what their opinions were on the subject? Did you see any of this coming?

Question 2. Favorite alcoholic beverage to have after a long week?

edit: added words

Thank you for responding.

Followup question that I like to ask during AMAs: If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to yourself when you were 18?

So first of all, this AMA really changed my opinion on the subject. You say that the extra cost is paid by the insurances, rather then the patients, which seems a 100% less awful.

My question now is, how comes, that you fucked up your PR so badly? Why was this crucial information not the first thing to be made public?

I ask this because I really want to trust you and think you are actually doing something good, but in my head your image is already associated with the word 'asshole' and i think i am being unjust to you.

And you aren't even mad that i called you an asshole. You are way more chill then I expected.

How has the price increase really affected people with said sickness ? Has there actually been people unable to afford the pill?

Then why are people still up in arms about this then?

To be honest, you really shouldn't have made a public donation to Sanders, but I thought that was very funny that he didn't want your money particularly.

Edit: do you have a plan to address the concerns the public has had over this one pill?

What do you think of the idea of legalizing psychedelics for therapeutical uses? Would that be something you would be willing to invest in if the current social stigma were to change?

BCRX - yay or nay?

Thx...how about OPK?

Netflix and chill?

Can you stop being a greedy asshole ?

Martin; as a former hedge-fund manager and CEO of a pharmaceutical company that follows a similar buisness model what are your thoughts on Valeant?

Well to be fair you market 2 drugs neither of which you developed. Obviously R&D is expensive and very hit or miss; and that risk can be mitigated by buying a drug someone else has spent time and money to develop. I guess what my question is; is this model the future of the pharmaceutical industry or are companies like Valeant just a hedge fund manager's wet dream?

How many of these profiles did you make for this event? I count at least half a dozen that were created 13 hours ago, all of them asking you softball questions.

What got you into league? Why are you putting so much money into it? I personally cant think of a single way team imagine or even NME which you tried to buy will bring profits if you buy them for upwards of 500k

Thanks for the reply. Also do you have any advice for a college junior from a target school looking to get into VC/Hedgefunds? Should I go for the standard BB IBD route?

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Could you please do us a favor and go fuck yourself?

How much would i have to pay you to jump in front of a moving bus?

Do you support universal healthcare and publicly funded prescriptions drug plans?

What am I doing in your swamp?

I don't want to ask you anything but what does the egg on your face feels like?

Have you ever thought about the fact that it's CEOs like you that effectively ruin businesses, destroy jobs, indirectly kill people, and take a huge portion of economy away from people that actually work for a living?

are you the owner of dota 2 team Leviathan?

Just out of curiosity, how much would you say you work on a weekly basis?

Being hated for no reason simply because people are uneducated and gullible to sensationalist headlines must really suck. Has anything happened to you IRL because of this?

Why did you raise the price by 5000% if you know most people who use the drug, are not going to be able to afford it... does that not resonate to you? You seem to care in these comments about issues that speak to us, but yet you're absolutely destroying the lives of most of the people that use this drug. Honestly man what the hell are you doing.

Yea and then the price of insurance goes up for everyone, including companies. Then prices go up for everyone who buys what that company produces. So the everyday person has less, and you have more. Does it make sense to you why people hate you for that?

What about the people who aren't lucky enough to be covered by insurance, now they cannot afford this life saving drug. Thank you for replying but please explain.

What patient assistance program(s) does your company provide to uninsured patients who can't afford Daraprim at the increased cost?

Have there been any potential breakthroughs in the domain of neurodegenerative diseases, more specifically, ALS? Could a cure for this disease be found in the next few years given the amount of research that is focused on it?

Do you think doing this AMA will help your current reputation?

I bet you're just sitting behind your desk laughing as everyone pisses off at you huh?

Did increasing the price of daraprim even cause profits to increase?

Are you delaying half life 3?

Money aside, how do you feel about being hated by the world?

How is the lawsuit from Retrophin going? Do you see Retrophin growing?

Hi, you recently said you were going to decrease the cost of the drug that made you infamous, what have you reduced it too?

Why do some of your answers not contain proper punctuation and capitalization but other answers do? Is someone else answering questions you don't understand?

What is your opinion on the belief/conspiracy theory that cures for lethal diseases are purposely being withheld by big pharma corporations? All because treating a disease is more profitable in the long term than curing it.

You must have to deal with a bunch of conspiracy people in light of making some of the pricing scale decisions you've comitted. Must make dealing with the legitimate questions and discussions extra frustrating.

I've been reading enough for the past half hour to understand what raising the price of your drug was intended to do, despite the message that was conveyed to the general public initially. My question is this: do such price increases affect insurance companies in ways that cause any sort of reprisal or hardship on companies that make drugs such as yours? I'm sure the pockets of insurance companies run deep, but I just don't know how deep.

Sorry if you've answered this already. I'm a bit tardy to the party. :)

Hi Martin. As a pharmacist who works at an ad agency, I'd like to think I see a bit more if the big picture than the average redditor. I quite agree that your actions, below the surface, can have a positive effect on the health care landscape. You seem like a smart guy with a good plan, but how did you or your company forget about the PR aspect of a drug re labeling, especially one as controversial as this? Even now, you guys seem to be doing very little in terms of crisis management.

Martin, props to answering even the asshole comments. As someone who works in the healthcare world, more specially pharmaceutical, I really wanted to detest you but you are a businessman and your actions are understandable.

I do have a few questions:

1) With the rise in the cost of Daraprim, you stated that the copay would be $10 for a patient. That is if their insurance doesn't require some sort of prior authorization or it becomes non-formulary. Where you even going to make a profit? What was the actual acquisition cost for pharmacies? The majority of insurances now will only pay the difference between the acquisition cost and the copay.

2) Why did you file requests with the FDA to reject a new type of cancer diagnostic from Navidea Biopharmaceuticals and an inhalable insulin therapy for diabetes from MannKind Corporation?

3) Any reason you specifically went into healthcare business? Was it purely for the potential of mass revenue or was there an altruistic reason?

4) Do you involve yourself into the political arena? If so, how?

5) If you could change anything about the healthcare field, what would it be?

do you have plans to increase the cost of other drugs in a similar manner to help fund more research, etc? is there a certain financial goal you're looking to reach before a possible decrease in cost?

How do you plan on resolving your mess of a public reputation? People will forget about you soon, but it will still be negative. Any solutions in mind?

Are you investing outside of pharmaceutical things in case it all goes tits-up?

Can you buy me my first car? Cheers

I'm surprised by your attitude towards everything negative being posted. How does it not affect you, but others complain of "online PTSD" or other crap?

Hey! Doctor here and I work in India.

Now medically speaking I haven't yet heard of why your drug's worth $749 more than my pyrimethamine. Does it improve on the nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea? Does it have a folate sparing effect? Can it be used in pregnant women and in epileptics?

No one's been able to tell me what your upgrade is or how it works or even if it is a cost saving upgrade.

Now here is my second problem. If your upgrade reduces the side effects of the drug, why is it much more expensive than prescribing say.... Ondansetron and a Folate infusion to counteract the more common effects. I mean even if I used multiple drugs to achieve this and say bundled pyrimethamine with ondansetron and loperamide and an antacid say pantoprazole and suggested folate level monitoring it would be cheaper.

So what makes Daraprim better than pyrimethamine and what changes and upgrades have you made to the drug to warrant the increase in price?

Maybe you should see the argument behind using cheap shit drugs instead of good ones being presented in the real world between Veikira Pak and Harvoni. You know. Since VK Pak is being linked to more deaths and liver transplants daily.

So I'm going to try and explain this as simply as I can because nobody seems to understand u/Anandya .

Basically a more focused drug treatment for toxoplamsma would require us attacking some sort of metabolic pathway in the parasite so that it dies due to its inability to feed on human tissue and we accomplish this through specific enzyme inhibition.

Attacking more specific pathways does not protect you from a mutated strain like the current treatment does because the protist in question produces tetrahydrafolic acid and has shown no ability to reduce pyrimethamine's binding affinity to dihydrafolate reductase like the pyrimethamine resistance strains of Malaria and therefore treatment is likely 100% effective due to the critical pathway that it interferes with. ALL eukaryotic cells require folic acid to function and pyrimethamine is very good at blocking the cellular structures that produce it. When you block a major pathway like this you have to deal with the intense side effects that come with Folic acid disruption but there is a very minimal chance of the parasite mutating and becoming resistant. I think the worry here is that a new treatment that targets toxoplasma specific pathways would only remain effective for a limited run due to the rate at which micro organisms tend to mutate and although toxoplasma is a protist and reproduces slower than bacterium this factor should not be ignored.

The mechanism of the drug is folate inhibition. It acts on dihydrofolate reductase as an inhibitor. The issue here is that dihydrofolate reductase is a common enzyme across a variety of organisms including us and the protozoa that causes this.

Now Malarial parasites have gained a resistance to this by mutations to their dihyrdofolate reductase enzyme that's changed their active site (and there are just better drugs out there) but Toxoplasmosis has not.

I don't think what you say is possible because it would require an entirely different drug that's more specific to the structure of toxoplasma's enzyme but spares ours. Pyrimethamine is too generic for this to work. But is also the reason why it is so potent. Small mutations don't change how the drug works.

So the problem here is

Should you make it more specific to Toxoplasma active sites you make the drug more prone to becoming useless through the development of mutations.

And the entire mechanism of the drug is to stop the production of folic acid in the first place and the bulk of its side effects are tied up with that. It's kind of counter-intuitive to say that you are going to solve this problem when it's not a problem as much as the whole raison d'etre of the drug. This I find is the main problem with your plan. That the solution is not worth $749.

And as I said. Folate tablets are cheap as well.. folate tablets. One cannot suggest such a monsterous increase in the price of a drug which by your own admission does nothing better while telling me your plan is to (because this is the only way it would work) create an entirely new drug not related to pyrimethamine at all because it would require a new structure. Which in turn would give you a big hassle since you would require testing and FDA approval from scratch anyway.

I think your plan is flawed.

To be fair, he has a point. Broad-spectrum treatments do stay working for longer.

I love how the AMA completely ended after this. Like opened the door, realized he fucked up and shut the door.

The ultimate smack down of the highly educated:

A detailed explanation that ends with something like, "I think your plan is flawed." <mic drop>

Shouldn't you wait to raise the price on a product until after you've made it better? I'm sure GM would like to sell me a car that does all sorts of things better than current vehicles, but I'm not going to pay them for improvements that haven't been invented and implemented yet now am I?

You should stop saying "I" because it makes you sound like an even bigger asshole considering you have no background in science or drug discovery.

No I am saying that the drug would be an entirely different active ingredient and would be a purely novel drug unrelated to Daraprim if it is that specific. From what I have asked pharmacologists and my understanding it is that the active site of folate reductase is competed for by the drug and this prevents the folic acid from being processed. Greater specificity to T. Gondii would make it have less side effects but this would not longer be daraprim's active ingredient because it would have to be a novel drug. It would also be more prone to resistance as it binds to a specific target site and should a mutation occur the lack of any wiggle room will harm the efficacy of the drug.

And this is without the fact that the drug would not be the same active ingredient and would effectively require a full FDA testing. I mean it would be your drug but it would have to jump through the necessary hoops of licensing.

Not well... So, you have money? Money makes you qualified? And what was your big plan? Ask for more money. Shit, you guys, we have a genius here.

Care to elaborate? As someone who is not in tune with the lingo, or even the mechanisms in the body that these drugs interact with, I'm curious as to what, exactly, makes the response 'off-topic' and 'misinformed' - it certainly seems to be neither.

I'm not saying it isn't, just asking that you provide some backing to your argument rather than dismissing everything that was said outright with no explanations.

Do you worry about assasination?

Omg you must be feeling so humiliated. I would feel sorry for you but it's just too funny and you are taking it so badly so I really don't.

You really need to learn how to Reddit with a bit of dignity.

Your nuanced and brilliant analysis supports (in my opinion, anyway) exactly why medicine should be an institution driven by a desire to help people, rather than a desire to profit from the genuine needs of the sick and impoverished.

Not all doctors know how the drug works. It would generally be a good bet that the pharmacologist has a better grasp of what's going on. And he didn't try to fool me. He was honest about his plans, maybe he just hasn't been told if something can be done or not.

If someone can tell me a way of making the drug more specific while maintaining the same formula I am quite happy to change my tune but right now I don't think it is possible.

Honestly curious, do you have any biochemical credentials?

Why is that laughable? More targeted will likely be more specific and therefore more sensitive to mutations. The more sensitive it is to mutations the more likely it is to become resistant. While that may be incorrect, it's certainly not laughable.

That's dodging the issue and everyone can see it. The question is how are you going to make pyrimethamine more potent and more targeted to T. Gondii when its too broad-spectrum to do so? You would have to change the formula for Daraprim to a different (though similar) active ingredient resulting in a whole different drug altogether.

Good for you guys for developing different drugs, but what you're trying to sell isn't passing the sniff test.

You are correct, this is grade-school. I'll try to break it down to an even more elementary level since everyone on here is getting it except you.

I'll remind you, Your statement was; "I would like to create a more potent pyrimethamine which would be more efficacious and have few side effects"

1. We're not talking about new drugs, we're talking about pyrimethamine.

2. You stated you wanted to make a more potent pyrimethamine.

3. Now the extraordinarily simple question which is evading you. How do you plan to do this?

What Anandya has done here is claim prior-art on the idea of pairing the drug with a folate supplement to make claiming a patent harder.

Fucking sack of shit! Go jump off a cliff we don't need more greedy pricks like you making it harder for low and middle income families to get medications

You really should kill yourself. You are an awful sack of shit.

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Ah, may you rot in hell for eternity after dying a slow, aids-related death from unprotected anal sex in prison - as you deserve. Now hop into your luxury automobile that you sold your soul to the devil for. Rest in piss!

What's the worst thing anyone has ever said about your physical appearance? Clearly people say shitty things about you as a person all the time, but you also look like a burn victim so I'm sure that must come up as well.

I have to say, I think you made an incredibly dumb decision earlier this month (I think you also recognize that), but taken out of the position you find yourself in now, you seem like someone I would want to be friends with. Genuinely hilarious. Still, you're a fucking asshole.

How has your day been?

actually it's not just those who know nothing, in whom the hate is strong.

Those who know something also hate you fully, collectively, and will for all of our lives.

And if, IF, there is anyone that knows everything. One like that would know your deepest thoughts. A being like that would know what you know:

you are wrong, in every way it is possible for a being to be wrong.

So, everyone: mindless, dumb, slow, sharp, smart, wise and all knowing, all hate you for this.

Behind your bluster, and trembling false smugness hides your truth. You, like all of us (even those paid to back you up) know that you are wrong, that your mother should never have opened her legs, and I suspect she has told you so.

How did you wander so far? Is it you? When was the moment, do you recall? How does a human become this.

Dude you frighten us, can you not understand that? Look at yourself, actually look at yourself. Billions hate you, you literally risk the lives of millions, because of your loneliness, and for your greed.

I have heard your justifications. You hope they will work on us, but you know they don't work inside you. How does all this make you feel? Does the money really cover it?

Come out and say it has been hell, and we can all believe you. Say right here that this has all been a terrible mistake, and put your life to the correction of it. Apologize to your family, the public and those decent politicians you have drawn into this shame.

I am not religious, but I recommend you then become a monk. The order or faith does not matter. You could become a rock-priest of Thor for all we care. But do go away now.

The system of paid blindness that allows this to happen, is equally responsible, but the choice was yours. History will line your kind up alongside some names you really won't enjoy unless you act. And an ama here will not cut it.

edit: if saying these things makes me a shitbag too? then fuck it, I'll take that happily. Note the difference. Nobody dies.

\o/ everyone else. Lol somad ragewall but, ugh this guy. It's just this guy

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Hi Martin-

Just saw this. Why do you think R&D overhead needs to be passed on to the patient? Can't you charge them a reduced amount, and try to raise funds through awareness/charity for R&D?

Ok understood. Do you think that's an effective model for the industry going forward?

Actually the price for new patentable drugs is doubling every 9 years, and currently costs about US$4-8 billion. Your company doesn't make anywhere near the amount required to finance clinical trials and therefore is not participating in this model. What amount of your profits are being re-allocated towards R&D? Do you honestly think you can make a better drug with your monopoly markups? It's really just a case of arbitrage and trying to maximise your returns for buying the rights to daraprim and leveraging the restricted distribution loophole to prevent generic competition. Stop being disingenuous and evasive, be honest about your business model and people will respect you more for it.

Ok, so you prefer Light & Warburton studies? If not, which study do you prefer? Is it not appropriate to factor in the cost of capital due to the lengthly R&D period and high risk of failure? Note, DiMasi and Grabowski are not the only ones writing about this topic e.g. see Adams & Brantner, Paul et al, See also article by Herper. Do you think somehow it doesn't cost hundreds of millions of dollars and 10-15 years to get from basic research, past clinical trials, and regulatory approval, with increasing costs over time? Do you think reports that less than 10% of drugs entering clinical trials achieve regulatory approval are flawed, and that success rates are not decreasing e.g. Arrowsmith “Trial watch: Phase II failures: 2008-2010” (2011) 10 Nat Rev Drug Discov 328 at 328, showed that Phase II success rates dropped from 28 per cent in 2006-2007 to 18 per cent in 2008-2009.

I think you should be honest. Your business model is not traditional pharma R&D and you are not getting into this game, even with the lower costs to undertake research into orphan drugs. If it was, you'd set up a new company and raise money for R&D. Your business model is to buy the US$55m rights then price gouging via monopoly rights and restricted distribution to make a return on the cost of acquiring those rights. Then maybe rinse and repeat. Stop pretending that this is about making things better for patients. You don't even have a degree in science.

Hey Martin, could you describe your experience while you were attending Baruch College? Anything memorable? I'm a sophomore there aspiring to break into finance.

Could you explain in detail how you started your first hedge fund following your internship at Cramer Berkowitz & Co? And how did it all lead to the founding of MSMB Capital Management up to founding biotech firms? It's a rather impressive path from what BBC describes your background as from a working class community in Brooklyn.

The price spike was very unpopuar. However, you have said that it was to fund research; I can see how this might be viable as a long-term investment. What specific research is being made possible by this price increase, and do you think it's worth it?

How do insurance companies effect bio-tech/pharma companies? Are they beneficial or do they halt progress?

I think I know what you're trying to say with all of this AMA and other public things. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Your ideal system would be one in which 2 things are true:

• Everyone has access to insurance, and pays a similar and manageable rate.

• Drugs are priced to insurance companies (not consumers) based on how necessary/valuable they are to the patient/consumer.

Thus, insurance companies make a predictable and growing amount of money from the US as a whole, including all the people who don't need medications. So, when someone has AIDS or another serious disease, the insurance company can pay for that person's medication with everyone's money, at a high rate per pill. This puts more money in to the R&D of said pill, and further improves medical research for the disease.

Is this your train of thought, or am I reading this wrong?

Hey Martin, what's your opinion on memes?

How much money have you made since rising the price of your famous drug?

What is your reaction to a competitor selling roughly the same product for $749 cheaper?

Also, When do you plan to lower the drug's price like you said you would?

EDIT: Grammar things

How low are you planning on lowering it to?

You've said that last time you were asked more than a month ago. How long does it take you to decide? Did your PR team tell you to do that for the "Agrees to Lower Price" headlines? If so, you should really fire them if you haven't already.

Other drug companies immediately lowered their high prices of unrelated drugs because of your story, and they're not the ones directly affected.

Also, I have a second question. Since the price increase has not directly led to increased profits, are you looking to revisit your pricing? Seems like you've inherited a lot of negative press and possibly lost some potential customers/supporters for no tangible benefit.

How has Team immunity been doing?

Hi MS,

Thanks for the AMA -- I was thinking about making the jump into the investment management industry. Any suggestions of how I would be able to move job from a back-end job from a content-focused financial services position?

What is your favorite Rule of Acquisition?

Also, do you offer discounts to those who give you Oomox?

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Do you regret using Turing's name for your company? He was a great man and now this controversy is associated with his name. Do you believe that you have brought negativity to this name? Would you consider changing your company's name?

Hey Martin Shkreli, will you accept your invitation to be a mod of /r/wallstreetbets ?

What's it like being labeled the biggest douche in the world right now?

IF that's the case then why with all the PR bull to try and make yourself and your company look less Douchey?

Some estimates have had even the best-insured patients paying $180 out-of-pocket for Daraprim, but you said on your Fox Business interview that you were relying upon insurance, not patients, to fund research. You also advocated for the "free market" despite limiting access to Daraprim, which you did not create, in the months prior to the purchase of the drug. How do you explain these discrepancies between what you are saying and what is going on?

Is there a catch?

Did you short shares of Turing's stock prior to the price increase announcement?

When do you play LoL?

Who's your favorite champ?

After creating so much controversy, bad publicity and being branded as villain of the year, would you still may raise price of some drug in near future?

How does it feel to have all of the bands on your label bail on you? As a post-hardcore/emo kid, that's gotta hurt. Thursday peaced out after you jackassed yourself. Big fan of those bands that jumped a sinking shit. You're a shitbag and you deserve all that hate headed your way. Thanks dude!!!!

Since you have enough money, how come you haven't gotten your theeth fixed?

To be fair, the media singled you out. Obviously the way you portrayed yourself made you a target for this sort of thing. I commend you for being able to reflect on it, and basically saying "hey if I'm being a dick, my bad."

That being said, do you think people in the industry have a reason to be upset? Letting the cat out of the bag so to speak?

How much longer can companies charge ~80K for a 3month supply (as the media is portraying) ?

What does it feel to be one of the most hated man in the world ? How does it effect your daily life ?

You didn't answer my second question, about how does this effect your daily life. Like when you wander around on streets, or buy coffee from Starbucks, how do people react when they recognise you ?

It is not an AIDS drug.

What is it, then?

No, not really. How in the fuck is Joe Average going to fucking afford $750 times however-the-fuck many pills it takes for a standard course of treatment? Use your damn head, you dumbfuck!

When should we be expecting an S-1 filing for Turing? You often bring attention to your $0 salary (nothing wrong with that), but when people read the S-1 filing and see how many shares you own - and stand to make from option exercises - you're setting yourself up to look disingenuous. So, when is the IPO/liquidity event?

Who are the investors in your hedge fund? Institutional backers? or Family funds?

He doesn't hold the rights to the drug. It's a generic.

It is a generic though, since the patent expired, but as far as I understand it, for any potential competitors, the manufacturing process and possibly the factory itself needs to be cleared by the FDA via an ANDA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbreviated_New_Drug_Application) and potentially a trial (though I am not sure of this part).

You on twitter, just now: "Overwhelming support on Reddit. Thanks everyone. Keep it coming."

So, is being Donald Trump in 30 years an explicit goal, or just something you assume will happen in time? You're hated enough as it is, do you really have the need to drive people more crazy by pretending you have serious support?

Honestly, a little more humility. Your tweets have just been trumpeting how much reddit loves you and how forgiving it is. Be a little more subtle about your quest for better PR.

Considering you're retweeting the few people praising you and saying that "the internet is not so bad" because of it, you'd probably bow down to me if I promised I'd change my opinion about you.

(of course if you respond at all, it'll probably be another one of those passive aggressive "meh, whatever" comments you've left to a bunch of people here)

Jagoff.

Did you short your own stock before you held that press conference?

I wasn't aware of that.

Look, I don't particularly care one way or the other about any of this, but next time you're going to draw the ire of the entire nation, shoot me a little PM so i can short a sector ETF.

what is the main reason for you to raise the price so significantly? Do you not regret it or even think how horrible it is that someone out there cannot afford their medication because of you?

I'll take all the heat for you for 5 million dollars. Deal? Let's do this.

How many units of Daraprim have you given out for free since you jacked up the price ? How many units have been sold ?

Proof or GTFO

Financials and inventory reports, post em

At a certain point it becomes clear that your comments will be downvoted regardless of what you actually say.

For a CEO of a pharma company, you're investing a lot of time in this IAmA, and you're not doing a good job at all with representing yourself.

Are you struggling emotionally since you started getting called out in public media? You seem like you're on verge of a mental breakdown from some of the answers you give here.

You must be bored/lonely

Can you explain the process that went into the decision to increase the price? I'm guessing your team didn't just pull the number from a hat. There must have been a lot of discussion and research on finding a price that would maximize its benefit to your company's pursuit of an alternative

I had heard somewhere that you have a close family member with significant medical issues. Is this true? And if so, what are they and did that prompt you into the rare disease research you are currently conducting?

What do you want your legacy to be?

What do you want to be known for at the end of your career?

What he actually meant was: "Having helped purchase and inflate prices of dozens of low efficacy generic drugs that rarely save lives."

Martin, you've discovered and invented exactly zero drugs.

The time to bring the drug to market is by and far not the largest barrier to his "invent and discover" legacy goal. It is the cost. Turing is tiny relative to the big picture in drug discovery, and recent studies show creating a new drug is easily in the billions of dollars, which I can assure you he nor his investors combined have laying around.

Thanks, Martin. You as well. You're a sharp guy, but you sure aren't doing yourself any favors with this science/R&D/discovery facade you got going. Might fool the layman with all your compound, chemical, molecule, disease talk but those of us who actually do real work in pharma research and development know that is just that, talk. For better or worse, you garner more respect as a savy investor than you ever will as a spin artist wearing your best scientist disguise.

Theres the Martin we know and love!

I am sure it is absolutely insulting to your "entire R&D department". But do you have any evidence of the contrary? You continuously talk about all this R&D, but the fact is you haven't developed a single drug. You purchase drugs, and that is not R&D, any way you try to spin it. So stop acting like it.

You know what is more insulting? You referring to your "R&D department" as R&D. How many full-time scientist do you employ? What exactly is your "entire R&D department" doing? Because to date, they certainly aren't doing much of the D in R&D. And lets be perfectly clear, the only thing you are researching is investment opportunities. Not cures.

Have you ever had a nose-job?

Hey! Just read this TechCrunch summary of this AMA and it seems like you always speak your mind to a fault, did you talk to a PR person about doing this AMA?

Classic Shkreli.

Mr. Shkreli, I am actually making a presentation on your company and recent events for my Ethics class. I'd like to ask you two questions.

1- What have been your greatest philanthropic achievements?

2- How is Turing Pharmaceuticals differentiating itself from other companies in the industry?

How badly did you have to pee when this happened? http://617vip.com/martin-shkreli-pissed-his-pants-in-front-of-his-board-of-directors-literally/

Do you lift brah?

do you have any plans on using CRISPR approaches for ex vivo corrections of genetic disorders (sickle cell, thalassemia, DMD, etc) or are you letting others take the lead on this?

Where does the "world's most hated man" find inspiration and drive? - key people, fav destinations/environment, etc?

Do you still have any involvement in funding Collect Records? And has all this controversy impacted your relationship with Geoff Rickley or any of the musicians on that label?

Hi Martin- was very surprised to see you participate in an open forum like this. I have a musical at the Annoyance Theatre coming up in a few months about the pharmaceutical industry. A main theme we explore is the concept of greed. Is there anything you would want us to include to provide a little more understanding what it is like to be on the decision-making end of the industry?

Thanks for doing this-- very bold of you to continue putting yourself out there.

Bro, how many fine ass bitches you done fucked in the ass while going back and forth between assholes while not giving a fuck about these pussies and their medicine?

What are some ways pharmaceutical companies can be pressured to redirect greater amounts of operating income towards qualitative drug improvements and research and development without raising costs to insurance companies and the consumer?

I don't think you're the evil, money hoarding CEO that you've been portrayed as. However, I would ask that you give an ELI5 on why the increase in price makes sense.

During the Retrophin issue a year ago you mentioned how your company is "unprofitable." How true is that and if it is true, how many improvements has this practice actually made to whatever drug patents you've bought?

So you are saying that it would still cost me $13 to buy the pill because you said the ability of patients to recieve medication would not change?

Do you care if someone can't afford the medication and hence dies?, or if to afford the medication that person's lifestyle is severely damaged?

Hi Martin- I'm the director and co-writer of a musical about the pharmaceutical industry which is in production at The Annoyance Theatre. If you were to sum up this whole experience in three musical theater-style song titles, what would they be? Also, if you were to personify yourself as a genre of music, what genre would you be?

Do you think you can / will you try to redeem yourself is so how?

How do you live with yourself?

By Increasing the price of a medication to the point that people in need have to go without? No matter what twisted logic you use, you should be ashamed of yourself!

So, I went to your company website out of curiosity and checked the career section, and found this job posting for a Desktop Support Technician

However, the responsibilities listed also include extensively working with servers and even infrastructure, which falls (quite far) outside of the realm of Desktop Support, and should be handled by a Systems Administrator.

My question is, does Turing regularly combine two separate and distinct jobs into one? Or do you think this is simply an oversight by an uninformed HR rep?

How long do I have to wait until someone kills you?

Is there anything more sycophantic than investment bankers/sell side analysts? You've been through the IPO process before, how hard do the MDs suck your dink? Deutsche, Leerink, et al. to run Turing's IPO?

How many hours a day do you sleep on average?

Hello Mr. Shkreli,

I am a biochemistry graduate student working on a recently discovered disease that could be vastly distributed in the population without knowledge to the vast majority of people who are affected by it.

How did you fall on Toxoplasmosis as your disease of interest? Was it a result of opportune timing, cost of the company, profit potential etc? I have a hard time believing with the current state of personalized biophysics and great work that is being done that you were fixated on and became a white knight beacon for hope in the research field, with the tact and social skills of a salmon-short wearing frat boy.

I don't despise you for your position, or what you're aiming to do (assuming you aren't lying) and I am all for putting it to the mostly corrupt insurance companies who probably pay the mainstream media to spin the story this way. I just want to know why you don't distribute and diversify the reach of your 'philanthropic science' as much as your financial portfolio.

According to your profile, you started working for Jim Cramer at age 17/18? Did that sweet gig held you start up your Capital Management firm a couple years later?

Why are you a disgusting leona 1 trick pony and still have sub 50% winrate?

Do you feel that instead of becoming the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, you would have like to be a doctor, or some other career? Or are you happy with your current career. Also, do you feel that there are some illnesses, that are now labeled as "Incurable" that have potential breakthroughs coming that may change their status?

Can you please describe your ideal woman?

What type of girls are you attracted to? Dark hair girls or blondes? Are they career driven or do you want a homemaker? How has your dating life been since your rise to fame?

better predicitive 5 year return - RARE or AXON?

Where do you stand knowing that uninsured patients (10% of Americans) with toxoplasmosis will be paying your upfront price?

a) How do you /did you go about gaining the intricate knowledge regarding medicine coming from a business/finance background ?

b) Do you think it would've been easier if you had a medical degree and picked up the finance/business knowledge on the way?

c) Do you think your undergraduate education has helped you in any meaningful way?

Thanks for doing this ama. You have managed to shed some light on your side of the story and probably convinced some to jump off the hatred bandwagon

In all seriousness, why are you here? I don't mean that in a confrontational way, at all. I'm just wondering why you decided to go onto the website that built most of the hate against you, and hold a 22 hour AMA?

I mean, this is why I love Reddit, AMA's like this, but seriously, why are you on here?

Can you screenshot one of those emails?

How about one Screenshot from any of this 'support'?

While Reddit surprises me from time to time the one thing that is consistent is that nobody here at all seems to support you since the start of your whole "Im a money grubbing asshole" business.

Find one. I challenge you. Face it, the world hates you.

Yeah, and so have ALL of your comments, maybe that says something about the ego you keep trying to inflate with this AMA.

Your answers make me laugh - i'm still not buying you being completely unaffected by the mountains of hate, have the phonecalls ever stopped?

How fucked are you after your company has been undercut so severely?

From what I heard that drug was one of the main streams of income for your company, doesn't the fact that no one in their right mind would buy your drug cripple your company's income drastically?

Martin- I think everyone is missing the point. I will ask you this- did you short the biotech sector (the IBB etf or individual names) and purposely create a pr firestorm by raising the price of an obscure drug that you only paid 50mm for so that you could profit on the short bet, knowing that politicians are very sensitive to drug pricing (look what happened when Henry waxman spoke last year)? Are you purposely creating a pr blitz to get politicians like Hilary to rail against drug pricing, so that the biotech industry crashes and you profit from your short? It has already happened, as biotech stocks are down 25% since the daraprim fiasco started. Thank you

Can you categorically say you didn't short the biotech index or individual names ahead of the NYT article and all of your interviews? A cynic would ask why you are going on a massive pr blitz to say you've raised the price of an obscure drug 50x, knowing you've had issues keeping your hedge fund activities and retrophin activities separate. You will make very little on daraprim and can easily have made hundreds of millions on shorting biotech stocks the last month. Are you sure you didn't purposely awake the sleeping bear (Hillary, congress, etc) knowing that last year when Henry waxman looked into drug pricing with gilead the whole market tanked? Can you definitely say this entire trolling w the media over small time daraprim (a 60 yr old drug that no company would bother to invest in) wasn't to aid your hedge fund activities?

You did not short retrophin or other specialty biotechs ahead of the public relations blitz of raising the price of an old forgotten drug 50x? You've created a firestorm and seem to love it, inciting a letter from Hillary to FDA and Rubio and others making drug pricing a key campaign issue. Surely you stand to gain more from shorting biotech names than (with all due respect) loser drug like daraprim. Everyone is up in arms like you raised the price of AZT or something when daraprim is a me too drug that can easily be made generically.

What were your initial intentions in starting Turing Pharmaceuticals? and what advice would you give to a large investor wanting to start their own pharmaceutical company?

What do you do for fun? Besides pissing off the internet, I mean.

Okay, I'll try something different.

Do you have any strong philosophies that guide your life/ambitions/productivity? What makes you tick?

Why should I not hate you?

Martin we should lift together bro. Do you plan on getting BO3 or star wars battlefront on the ps4 in the future?

Can you please post a quick photo of yourself with a banana or some other fruit? Thanks

Are insurances fair with patients regarding your drug? Insurances give a hard time for many other expensive drugs

At the end of the day, which do you care about more? Money or saving lives?

During your most recent interview with Fox you said that you were engaged with other bio/pharma companies to acquire new drugs, right? My question is this: Does Turing have an internal M&A/Corp dev. team? or do you rely on boutique investment banks to source your deals?

What's the strategy when your competitor's just-as-effective Daparim substitute is approved?

When Imprimis gets its $1 compound into the market. What are your plans for then?

You seem to have oxymoron on the 750 price you insist its the correct price to charge yet feel the need to defend its for R&D (many other companies raise money) at the end of the day are you saying I just want to be like the other companies? Second why are you the only Pharma which seems to think we need to fix this drug? 3rd are medications these days more expensive than 20-50 years ago?

When you bought daraprim for 50mm, knowing it generates 5mm in revenue, did you put leverage on the purchase? I.e. did you finance 50% of the purchase, meaning your IRR is more like 20%, which is a perfectly respectable ROE that does not necessitate a price increase? Didn't you essentially buy a bond when you bought daraprim? I ask because the cynic would say that there really is no juice to squeeze here and it is to help your short of the biotech industry from the firestorm you (proudly) created. Are you concerned the SEC will look into your trading activity ahead of all of this? Thank you

Okay, so I have read your comments and there is something that doesn't seem right to me. You say that you raised the price to raise funds for more research, but you also say that you believe that the price of a pharmaceutical should be equal to it's value. So......did you raise the price because you want research OR because you believe that a good medicine should cost more as well?

Okay, so you need that money for research but you admit that you want to make profit (arguably to others' demise) as well?

1. Green tea or coffee?
2. What is your ps4 username for future BO3 , Battlefront game sessions lol. Or should I tweet you when it comes out?
3. Do you like horror movies?
4. Do you think to many scripts are being written for ADHD, anxiety, insomnia, etc
5. Do you think nicotine will be a medicine one day for ADHD, Parkinson, depression?

What are your thoughts on ACADIA pharmaceuticals and their drug pimavanserin? Thank you

Any shot that their drug is a blockbuster because of cleaner safety profile? Thank you

Could you please upload a quick photo so that you can prove to skeptics/cynics like me, that it is indeed you who is answering on this AMA for all this while? (and not your new PR team/someone else on your behalf) ?

No offense/insult intended.

seven. thanks

i dont even know where to upload it. sigh.

Do you have any trouble sleeping at night?

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How were your experiences with activist investing back in the day? I'm about to read your 13-D filings from '11. Are you a fan of the strategy in general?

What drugs are you anticipating coming out of R&D?

Particularly, are there any interesting developments perhaps on par with the improvement that Aripiprazole (Abilify) made over popular antipsychotics such as Quetiapine (Seroquel).

Abilify is expensive, but best-in-class. I'd like to think that one day that drug will be genericised and made more accessible to ill people. Are these the types of drugs your company is interested in (innovative, high-value)?

That's why I asked about pimavanserin. Targets 5-ht2a receptor in its method of action. New class of antipsychotics. Submitted NDA last month.

No. Inverse agonist vs antagonist. Different method of action

Can you talk about any of the drugs in development right now?

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How would you respond to the fact that so far your company's greatest successes in pharmaceuticals have been acquired rather than as a result of that R&D cost?

YOU want to explain this to HIM? Are you aware of the fact that he's been in politics longer than you've been alive?

Do you believe in God?

Do you support single-payer healthcare?

Okay, Mets or Royals?

How did you come to such bad terms with your old board at Retrophin? Didn't you pick much of the board members?

How did you injure your arm?

Ignorant? Ironic that I'm the only one backing up my statements with evidence. Nice windup attempt though. How about taking a break from your career as a professional internet troll and getting back to looking for other arbitrage opportunities you can exploit. Or perhaps brainstorm some strategies to deal with your imminent anti-trust investigation, the Retrophin lawsuit and competition from Imprimis.

DuoQ some time?

Who's your preferred presidential candidate at the moment?

Maybe he did support him, but not anymore after bernie gave away his donation.

Hey, does Turing Pharmaceuticals had any internships or low level R&D positions?

I saw you guys are working on an EE med and have always been interested in the process of bringing a drug to market (particularly the early research phases).

I'm new to this issue, and the impression I've gotten is that you're the Jackass Anti-Villian of Medicine. Is this accurate?

Is being young and rich all it's cracked up to be?

Any reason why? Aside from all the bad media lately what other negative issues has it created?

So obvious follow up, why not become a sort of pharmaceutical philanthropist rather than jack up the price of a medication in the pursuit of profits?

Were Turing employees and staff concerned about the bad publicity when it was going on? Did any quit?

Are you hiring analysts? O:)

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Hey man. I don't actually dislike you, as I understand what actually happens in these situations (thanks to my cousin, a hospital administrator). It probably sucks to be so hated atm.

My question, are you Albanian? If so, you're probably related to my best friend. Albanian or nah?

Are you from the Bronx by any chance?

Edit: Stop downvoting him for this comment? He literally just said he's albanian.

Ever since Bernie Sanders rejected your money for his campaign, what is your opinion of him now?

Hey, I remember you own an eSports team, can I know what is your plan with the eSports team? Do you love playing League of Legends? :)

A few questions, actually.

1) What's your opinion on investing in index funds? Do you think it's the most viable option?

2) How did you get to become a hedge fund manager?

3) Did you have a lot of friends in school?

4) This is a bit of an odd question, but evidently you have entrepreneurial skills. What are some key things to do when starting a business?

Honestly, I didn't think you'd respond. You're a rather interesting person.

Some follow up questions

5) Is there any regrets you have?

6) How much free time do you have?

7) Did you have to leave behind friends on your road to where you are now?

8) What kind of marks did you get in high school?

Even more, I am curious

9) Did you bring any friends with you?
10) How much networking was involved?
11) What motivated you?
12) I know you play Dota, do you play Smash Bros?

So how long so you plan on doing this AMA?

Can you, or how can we, help prevent the unnecessary animal cruelty that happens in much of bio-tech animal testing?

Bandwagonners are a bitch. If your explanation of what happened is true, this is just a modern witch hunt. I think when people judge on matters like this without understanding the technical and business dynamics involved, it showcases the worst of democratic system.

top 5 books that helped you gain better insights in life/business? feel free to list as many as you'd like.

When might a Turing IPO happen?

So, you must know that Reddit is a fickle place and a lot of people have a predetermined mindset that you're not going to change at all. Why do this AMA if you know that the result is only going to be bad for your publicity?

Thanks for doing this AMA. I haven't been following this story much but I can appreciate someone's willingness to interact with the horde of dissenters (in general), whatever your reasons may be.

What's your opinion on conspiracy theorists who insist that the pharmaceutical industry has been hiding cures for diseases such as cancer? Do you think there's any way for the industry to convince them otherwise?

A friend of mine went to Baruch around the same time you did. We were both discussing the price increase controversy a little while back and he said you were relatively infamous as a womanizer but that you secretly gave handjobs to dudes on several occasions. Any truth to this?

Can you get high of Daraprim?

Martin, I treat AIDS patients with CNS toxoplasmosis. I have switched to using bactrim to avoid using pyrimethamine. Many of my colleagues are doing the same and the guidelines for treating toxoplasmosis have just been updated to advocate for use of bactrim when pyrimethamine is difficult to obtain.

Did you anticipate that physicians would consider effective alternatives to pyrimethamine and have you seen a decrease or increase in demand since raising the price?

Martin, I treat AIDS patients with CNS toxoplasmosis. I have switched to using bactrim to avoid using pyrimethamine. Many of my colleagues are doing the same and the guidelines for treating toxoplasmosis have just been updated to advocate for use of bactrim when pyrimethamine is difficult to obtain.

Did you anticipate that physicians would consider effective alternatives to pyrimethamine and have you seen a decrease or increase in demand since raising the price?

Can I challenge you to a pokemon battle?

What do you think about the news on VRX that employees at Philidor were using fake names? Are you going to hold through the CC?

Also can I add you on league? I'm in high master ranked

Whats it like having the whole internet hate you for a period of time?

Hahaha, don't worry we don't all hate you, I'm apathetic. But could you give a serious answer to his question? What was it like to have a Reddit circlejerk shitstorm aimed at you?

Then why are you still here arguing?

Fair enough.

Here's an honest question: What are you most excited for your company to start producing in the next 5 years?

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Then how are you alive? All you are is a rich kid that burned up his hedge fund ,never did jack shit in his life and became publicly known because you thought fucking people over by hiking the price of a critical medicine to unseen heights?

Fucking hell, you are worth less than the dust on the bottom of my shoes.

Anyone ever said you look kind of like Adam Scot from Parks and Rec? http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004395/?ref_=tt_cl_t9

I don't have a question, nor do I care what votes I get on this. Initially I thought you were heartless, then I heard your explanation. Now, I just think everyone really likes the idea of capitalism until it's thrown in their face (despite the reasoning behind it). Good for you man, a worthy cause (albeit roundabout way to get there, kind of) at idk how old you are, is rare. Unlike us normal shmucks who's worthy causes consist of getting laid....and?

Just thought of questions. Do you have any pets? Type? Names? Grow up with any? Favorite animal?

Hillary Clinton wrote letters to the FDA and FTC accusing Turing Pharmaceuticals of "Price Gouging". Letter to the FDA: "Turing's decision to artificially increase the price of Daraprim by over 5,000% overnight exploits vulnerable patients whose lives depend on access to the critical medication".

How would you respond to Clinton's statements in her letters to the FDA and FTC?

How about you answer the actual question rather than resorting to childish insults that get you nowhere.

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Are you answering every question everyone is asking you?! You started this thread over a day ago and I saw you last responded 20 minutes ago. That takes some time, patience and stamina.

Hey Martin,

Thanks for doing this IAMA. Android or iPhone? Mac or Windows?

Everyone has their price, so let's hear yours. How much would it cost me to get you to play me in a game of Russian Roulette? Winner take all, best 4 out of 6.

I saw you defending your points on a web show, and looked more into your stuff. You sound like a decent guy, with witty remarks but I’m curious as to why the media is so hinged at making you look bad, is there some ulterior motive other than the whole age and attitude thing?

Can you tell me if you have psychopathy? Because you fit the stereotype of the charismatic good looking heartless CEO. Do you feel like you have a lack of empathy for the people who are suffering because of your policies?

But you do realize what you're doing is immoral and cold right?

Everybody here is uninformed... The small, marginal percent of people who understand your pricing rationale have been pretty quiet. I'm sure this comment will be downvoted for the simple reason that I'm disagreeing with the hivemind.

Can you answer this random question? If you had a choice as a lifelong pet, would you pick a dog, cat or a fish?

How's that Ketamine related drug for depression coming along? I've been looking into the antidepressant qualities of Ketamine for years.

So what's the deal with Rampart?

Just an FYI, the one-word responses might fly on Twitter, but here you're expected to form whole sentences like a big boy.

Whit being the most hated man right now, how has this affected your love life and do you expect to ever get married ?

Hey, Marty. How does Anandya's dick taste?

Why the fuck are you such a fucking asshole?

Martin, what is your Myers-Briggs code?

I suspect you are an ENTJ. It would be awesome if you could confirm this. Myers-Briggs offers insightful information.

So hows that social life treating you?

What's the most you've ever lost on a coin toss?

What is your PC's specs? Pre-built or custom built?

1) You're not the first person to drastically raise prices on a drug but you got thrown under the bus. Was this simply bad timing or something else?

2) Is CEO your preferred rank in a company?

3) People talk a lot of shit on the net, do you find it carrying over into "face-to-face" conversations?

4) Why the pharma industry and not another one (e.g. trading)?

Thanks for doing an AMA :)

Do you regret your response to the negative reactions following the announcement of the price hike?

Do you regret your response to the negative reactions following the announcement of the price hike?

Thanks for doing an AMA! I respect your concern re patients with rare diseases & long term hard work.

1. How can we leverage recent advances in machine intelligence, computing power, and big data to improve efficiency of drug discovery & development?
2. Why is biotech R&D so expensive? Where can we cut the costs most realistically? Can we cut the costs by running human trials in countries with lower median income & regulatory overhead?
3. Where do you get your daily news & learning from?

didn't you do an ama already?

can you buy me a ps4?

also, i can double all your money in 2 trades. im also trimming armour if you want

edit: runescape reference for those who don't get it

Has anyone ever called you a toxoplasmosis warrior, and then gone on to offer you Hawaiian pizza as a form of 'warrior fuel'?

Also, have you ever traded any OTC?

Hey Martin! I know I'm a little late to the party, but:

Who inspires you personally and who inspires you professionally?

Hi Martin 1) When you price gouge a product to create a bear market, why isn't this market manipulation? (especially when your hedge fund specializes in short bets) 2) How can I get a job for your hedge fund?

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Do you realize that this AMA was a very retarded move? If there was no such thing called bad publicity, you just made it.

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Hi Martin Do you not think that maybe adequate research could be performed on this drug with a more modest increase in price? Was this astronomical hike really necessary for R&D?

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How does it feel to be a shitlord?

Oh, Marty, well thanks for the AMA! My first and only question is:

how quickly do you plan on firing the PR person who said this was a good idea?

Of the two major aspects of your job: trolling large numbers of uninformed people, and saving lives, which is more gratifying?

OMG you have absolutely no self-awareness or understanding of how the public sees you, do you?

You actually believe you could get good publicity from this, don't you?

I feel sorry for you, seriously. I don't care how successful you may be financially, because a person who can't see themselves as they are perceived by others has a hollow, unengaged and meaningless life.

You remind me a lot of Donald Trump, and I'm sorry but I don't mean that in a good way.

Do you think it's a little sad that you've basically just been replying to multi's of yourself because they're the only ones who will be nice to you?

Please kill yourself?

How does it feel like waking up every morning knowing that you are probably one of the biggest shits in the world?

According to what you have said about the pricing of the drug, it seems like insurance companies are going to be taking the brunt of your decision to raise the price of the drug. In fact, it seems to be one of your moral justifications. How have they reacted to your seemingly blatant exploitation of their business?

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What is your opinion of Donald Trump?

How heartless are you, that you prey on sick, vulnerable people?

Why do you think people believe that supply and demand doesn't apply for innovation in medicine when that's the way it works in every other field?

Welcome to the lions den. You got caught trying to grossly overcharge people for medication in order to make a huge profit. Problem is you got "caught". On the internet you will always be know as that guy, and that is not a good thing. Popularity is nice and bad publicity sometimes is very bad. I imagine your feelings of self worth are more closely tied to earnings than popularity. However, with your level of net notoriety any public move to make such great earnings thru such immoral means will bring the net down on you. I'm sure your smart, but you are not an Elon Musk who can actually make a profit and and help humanity. So will you keep banging your head against the wall with pharma or will you go behind the scenes where you can pursue your questionable ideals of capitalism in relative peace and probable success? Also, I saw you mention how the pharmaceutical companies need the promise of huge profits to be inventive. The ones in Cuba and many other places dont, but lets act like they do for a sec. So what is the options for creating treatments to diseases that are unprofitable to cure?

You may not like the questions but there were two:

So will you keep banging your head against the wall with pharma or will you go behind the scenes where you can pursue your questionable ideals of capitalism in relative peace and probable success?

and

So what is the options for creating treatments to diseases that are unprofitable to cure?

Do you think health care should be a commodity? That only the rich should be able to get?

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Thanks for doing this AMA this is probably the most interesting and fascinating one I've read on here... Probably the first time I've asked a question on one.

What would you do right now if you had $0 to your name, $0 in assets, etc.? A financial clean slate type of scenario. What would the next 30 days look like to you?

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I might be a bit late to the party, but I have a question. Are you currently investing in the development of new antibiotics?

Has the hassle of your decision been worth the profit of all of this?

Has anyone tried to kill you yet? If not, why?

I love how this entire AMA was done just to support his point. Instead of intelligent, thought provoking questions, the majority of these comments are pejoratives or unintelligent observations.

Martin Shkreli will get to show this to his board, and will get to flaunt the overwhelming ignorance of the internet that has just confirmed that he (in his mind) is being put on trial by people beneath his understanding of business, his industry, and his ambition, and will get to clear his conscience because we have less questions like /u/Anandya's, and more that are essentially, "how do you sleep at night you capitalist pig?"

Come on guys. We're smarter than this.

lmfao okay, Mr. Doctor.

Oh wait, you're not the doctor. The doctor's the guy whose points you just called worthless, uninformed, and off-topic.

How is that relevant? Anandya's points were unequivocally the best and most substantial of any in this entire thread, and you conveniently overlook them.

You said the following:

I would like to create a more potent pyrimethamine which would be more efficacious and have few side effects (including not requirin [sic] folinic acid co-administration).

And he goes on to show you why that is nonsense.

It leads a person to believe one of two things: a) you don't know what the fuck you're talking about, or b) you know what the fuck you're talking about and realize that he's right but that publicly acknowledging that he is right would put you at risk of losing your job, because you'd show that you're making up bullshit excuses to justify raising the price of the drug, further showing yourself to be the greedy fuck everyone thinks you are, interested in profit over lives.

Despicable.

That's on you, not Anandya. You should have said a replacement for pyrimethamine or something similar.

That you didn't, actually, leads me to believe you're just saying that to backpedal so as to weasel your way out of acknowledging you were wrong.

How did you think for a single moment that you would ever get away with such a grossly inappropriate price increase on an essential drug? Especially considering that nearly anything anyone does in the public sphere is chronicled for everyone to see on the internet?

What type of porn do you watch?

Your actions in buying this drug and raising it's price have landed you in one incredible shitstorm. However, you are not the first to make such a move; there are MANY examples of companies doing exactly what you have done and have avoided (nearly) all controversy and litigation. Can you comment on what makes your situation so different? Is there a context here that we aren't aware of, that could inform how you specifically are being targeted for this horrible, but widespread practice?

As a followup-- When considering whether to buy Daraprim in the first place, which companies (and their successful drug-price-hike investments) did you consider most informative? ANd now that you're in the middle of this storm, who ELSE in the market do you consider to have done "the exact same thing" but who has avoided controversy?

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Do you have any legal recourse against Imprimis or any other company that plans to take advantage of this gigantic opportunity you just created for them, particularly with creating a generic or other alternative custom drug to Daraprim? I can't say I'd blame them.

Martin, do you in fact hold a large number of shares of IMMY and was this whole media shit show just part of your plan to spike those shares?

What the hell do you think the actual benefit of doing this AMA will be? Do your stockholders know that you are doing this?

Pretty sure you're just self-destructing in front of an audience, but whatever keeps you talking!

Was his Twitter hacked to reference this AMA? I ask because the responses here are so drastically poor and digging him into such a deep hole, it seems almost impossible that he would actually have anything to do with this?

Hey there Mr. Shkreli!

Do you by any chance have a steam account? Can I add you?

And thanks for doing this ama, I'm really enjoying it :D

Your background is in business. As far as anything online, you don't have an ounce of medical education.

You're a hedge fund manager whose fall back when anyone asks a serious question is that they just don't understand competitive markets and economics. And you only recently got into the medical field, none of which involved actual medical work but mere portfolio management. You're crunching numbers and doing math, but you don't work with patients and you don't have ground experience with the drugs you produce.

You're the medical equivalent of a patent troll, buying patents and licensing rights and extorting others with the IP.

But of course, you won't respond to this, will you? You're too fucking pedantic. Why even come to a public forum if you refuse to engage with the public? Are afraid you'll reveal that you are just a greedy extorionist? Do you have any personality or even integrity enough to respond to anyone? All of your comments are simplistic and evasive.

Helping the minority who want to understand the issue understand it.

Do you? You don't seem like you do. It seems like you want to bludgeon people with obviously false and misleading propaganda.

So what you mean is something that has the effective potency of methotrexate, the selectivity of pyrimethamine, and a relatively* mild ADE profile like trimethoprim?

what happen to your nose?

You said on this AMA that you want to help the minority understand your actions, yet I can't seem to find a single public figure in the press who has made a full throated defense of your price hike. Can you name one and are his/her remarks public?

You're a delusional sociopath.

AFMD or STML?? Thank you

What's it like being hated by everyone?

Hi. I don't really have a question; I mostly wanted to call you a bad person just so I can claim to have done so with legitimacy. What's your favorite sandwich?

Is this all a big troll for a "reality show"?

Hey Martin, what are your first and second favorite animals?

What's your favorite(s) movie(s), Mr Shkreli?

When you sold your soul did you take the market value or did you settle for stock options?

yes, it will. how do you think its targeted? targeting will make it better at binding to that enzyme by making it a better fit (think of a lock and a key, but in this case the better the key fits into the lock, the better it binds and the more likely it is to stay). unfortunately, usually when this happens it's done in a way thats specific to that enzyme in particular and less specific to other enzymes, or mutations in that individual enzyme.

these are just general trends, though. maybe this case in particular is different. either way, in the future if you want to communicate effectively with scientists, you should avoid calling reasonable statements "ridiculous" and "laughable" when in reality you have no substantial biological or medical credibility and apparently insufficient background knowledge on the topic.

Does this make sense at all? From my non-doctor point of view it sounds like he's just saying that they're putting the pyrimethamine and dhfr-ts in the same crystal. But isn't the dhfr-ts the thing they're trying to inhibit? Why would you put that in with the inhibitor to reduce side effects? It seems like that would just reduce the available pyrimethamine to actually do the job. Am i misunderstanding?

based on your previous replies of this thread, it doesn't seem that way. it doesn't seem like you're very familiar with biochemistry at all.
edit: if you'd like to ask more specific questions to shore up some of your knowledge deficits, feel free.

That's fantastic. Good for you! Are you also familiar with the human DHFR binding pocket? Because that's the point. Hitting toxo DHFR without hitting human DHFR would be the "targeting" he was talking about. That would require a different molecule, more specific to toxo (or a better delivery mechanism, like an ADC). Making it more specific could definitely result in resistance due to a mutation. That's undergrad biochem. If your PIs aren't aware of this, you should probably clean house.

But let's be honest. You don't have an PIs.

me what?

I know no ADC specific to toxo exists so it obviously isn't a better delivery mechanism. It might be possible to develop one, but that would require R&D. We both know you're not going to do that. You like to talk about Turing's R&D division but you have no NMEs in the clinic. Your group would never take on anything novel whatsoever.

And yes- a drug more specific to toxo DHFR could absolutely result in resistance. By specificity, we mean specific to toxo over human DHFR. That would necessarily be a new molecule and a new molecule always confers the possibility of resistance.

What do you think of the idea of limiting the price of a drug to two times (2x) the lowest price of the same drug in Canada, European Union, or Japan?

1) Have you ever been to or desire to go to Albania? 2) would you like to diversify into real estate investments? If so, would be happy to go partners

You answered an impressive number of questions in this AMA. I'll be honest, when I saw this post I thought "Great this fucking guy is going to spew PR bullshit" But I was wrong.

I'll admit I don't understand enough to have an opinion of your actions in the pharmaceutical industry. You seem true to yourself and believe what you are doing is justified as well as the right thing to do. I hope what you say is really what you intend to do.

This being an AMA, which is the better pet cats or dogs?

What champion do you main on League?

What current alternatives are available to treat Daraprim and sulfonamide resistant toxoplasmosis, and how do they compare?

What's your favorite car? Not what do you drive, but your dream car? I drive a Honda, but a couple of months ago I saw a Pagani Huayra. OMG it was sex on wheels.

No the truth is you thought a donation would get you some facetime with a candidate you like but Bernie wouldn't meet with you because he's not beholden to money.

You are the face of the ugliest side of capitalism and I suspect you are some sort of sociopath. I pity you for the hatred that is directed at you. I think under normal circumstances you could be someone I'd like. I mean you like my favorite band, Brand New, and you're considering voting for my boy Bernie.

I know you justify your actions but you've been rewarded for them with all this attention. What will you do with your 15 mins of fame Mr Shkreli? What will you do?

"develop" and "rare and serious diseases" in Martin shkreli terms means "google" and "profitable health problems"

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As a Hillary supporter, I support this endorsement of Sanders' candidacy

That is such a blasé answer no one believes you.

Pander much?

can you just give me a ton of money for no reason?

Want to play league together? Pm your username bro.

Hi Martin, if you had to vote for any Republican, who would it be?

If your company had not obtained rights to the drug and jacked up its price, would it have been discontinued by its original manufacturer?

When I first saw you on the Daily Show I sort of wrote you off as a douche bag. But after reading through this thread, I have to say that the way you've been portrayed in the media is very unfair. Thank you for taking the time to explain yourself. I think the treatment you got is, in some sense, a healthy sign, but as far as I can tell you're not the dark figure I thought you were. I guess this is one of those times when outsiders ought to remain silent on issues they don't understand.

Would it be possible for you guys to charge only those whose insurance covers the drug, and give it away for free (or at a very reduced rate) to those paying out of pocket? Since those paying out of pocket would probably not be able to afford the medication anyway, this seems like the ideal solution.

honest queston: are you a virgin?

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I quote you speaking about your company making drugs for dying kids: "I've invented a few of these drugs myself."

Which drugs, exactly, have you invented? How do you invent new drugs with no background in biochem?

I'm no expert in dealing with patents, but I only found one ("PANTOTHENATE DERIVATIVES FOR THE TREATMENT OF NEUROLOGIC DISORDERS", 2013).

What was your involvement in that one?
For example: you call yourself an inventor, does that mean you came up with an idea ("The world needs <X>!") and had scientists come up with how to do it, or were you at the lab bench working to make something a reality?

I'm trying to see the relationship between being an inventor and being a CEO.
For example, how do they overlap? When and why did CEO become your primary role? Do you consider yourself an inventor based on patents, or based on your personality (eg. being a person who comes up with Ideas with a capital I)?

Do you like Kanye?

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Either you are the most brilliant man on Earth for highlighting one of America's biggest problems in healthcare or you are a giant troll: Which do you consider yourself and why?

Be honest: is this your weird way of making friends? PM me. I'll be your friend.

I love how most of the redditors on this AMA don't take the time to do their research and really understand that people who need the drug can still get it for $10. Instead they just tell this guy to go off himself which in turn makes them feel better about himself. Fucking losers. To all the dicks that don't bother to do their research before opening their big fat mouths please explain to me how it feels to make yourselves feel better when telling this guy to kill himself?

This isn't possible with pyrimethamine as it is, you would have to create a whole new drug structure to affect its selectivity. The only way to 'make a more efficacious pyrimethamine' is to experiment with the additives to alter its pharmacokinetics, which would not affect its binding profile.

What's your favorite brand new song?

The idea of you procreating scares the living shit out of me. :(

What's it like being a piece of shit human being?

What the fuck are you even still dong here? This isn't your official subbreddit or anything. Don't you have, like, actual work to do? Nobody's reading this at this point except people like me, who are just relishing your public downfall.

scumbag martin at it again go drink bleach

TUR-004 isn't in the clinic yet and it is designated as an IND... and there is no hint as to its structure. I can't find the MoA anywhere. My guess is that this is a reformulation of a failed compound- in which case you're confusing IND with NME just like you confused specificity with efficacy.

And what makes you say that an ADC is not possible? Maybe not with your R&D pittance. Can you give me any reason as to why targeting human cancer cells is possible with an antibody... but targeting protozoa is impossible?

IF you are familiar with the Rampart AMA, do you feel this went better or worse?

How you feel bruh?

Is this actually you or a PR firm?

Does it bother you at all that the drug whose price you hiked so astronomically is used to treat AIDS, which disproportionately affects gay men in North America, and that your company is (shamefully, in my opinion) named after a brilliant gay man? Did that fact not give you any pause?

I mean, look: I can understand greed. What I can't understand is what seems to be your utter disregard not only for human life and compassion, but for basic human decency. I also can't understand what appears to be your utter disregard for the image of your own company. You may have some patients over a barrel now, but cheaper alternatives to your drug have already been announced; do you have no concern for the fact that people will shun your company like a leper not merely because of your shameless price gouging but because they dislike you so intensely, and with good reason?

Maybe you could enlighten me on Turing...was he misunderstood because he was also willing to put a price tag on the lives of sick individuals in order to turn a profit? Or was there another reason? I don't know if your PR team is asleep at the moment, but I would advise you to stop posting. This has only been going downhill for you.

Martin WHY are you ignoring the group chat? What kind of shoes are you wearing?

C'mon Martin, come back to us. Don't act like you don't know us.

People can be so biased (though the media can be partially blamed for this)... anyway here is my question (I am not from America but I am just being curious):

I assume that insurers have not changed their coverage policies for your product. In case this will happen (due to the price change) how will your company react, so what actions will be taken to get the product to the people that need it?

Words out of your mouth are not proof, as your former coworkers and investors know all too well.

If the insurers change their policies and remove your product from their list I hope that your company will still generate enough profits. Keep up the good work dude, unlike many others your company actually invest in R&D (and still provide affordable products) which is much needed.

Any comment that is positive is from an account that is at most a day old.... You aren't fooling anyone. Get your shit together man...

Have you started trials for the drug to treat your massive personality disorder?

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wow you are such a child

Hey Martin, How many people blew up your phone when your number leaked and do you respond to any of them?

Why did you decide to double down on being a dick in the media instead of trying to help yourself in anyway? Also, why did you harass the family of an ex-employee of the company that is currently suing you?

I am a rare disease caregiver and run a research foundation. Don't you think your tactics reflect badly on the entire rare disease biotech industry and thereby, place all their patients at risk for fewer treatments in the future?

Look Shkreli, Im going to throw you a bone here. Im almost a doctor, so I understand where you are coming from. A lot of ppl on here don’t know about medicine or toxoplasmosis and are acting like they do. Many of the people, as you realize, are venting their frustrations bc you made it big, when others have not. Lets be honest, getting rich these days is extremely hard, and reading about your history, you kind of made something out of nothing. You got in the hedge fund game when there was no where for the market to go but up, you then realized that the biotech thing was blowing up and you took a piece of the pie. Now you’re, trying to say that you will use profits for research, so show ppl where you are investing in research. On your twitter page you have many articles about the drug resistance of t. gondii. Put some more of that on this reditt feed. Knowing the insurance companies I have no problem with them paying more money. People don’t understand that the insurance companies are largely to blame with our current health care problems. I laud you for taking up he niche market; ppl crucify you for ‘taking advantage’ of patients, but no one questions the human rights concerns from apple’s factories as hatefully tweet you from our child-labor-iphones. A lot of things we purchase and use everyday are produced in sweatshops. Yet you never hear Hilary going after Apple or Walmart. You’re pretty much the victim of our current health debacle and election campaign. With so much emphasis on the negative things in this country, they found a person to vilify. Granted maybe you’re not as innocent.

Moving forward, I suggest you use your current press coverage to make a difference. Now, doing what you know best, take on an idea already out there and make it better. I.e. what Imiprimis is doing. With the biotech bubble burst you can really make an impact championing cheaper drug alternatives(non-FDA-approved) while throttling down profits a little. You can use this opportunity to somewhat reverse your image and change ppl lives. Sorry as long as you are rich, ppl will hate you; sorry/congrats you’re loaded. (lol). You can easily emerge the hero; most ppl don’t look at Fassbender, Bale or Penn as the women beaters they once were - they are seen as heroic actors. Again, you can use this exposure of your’s to educate ppl of the current pharmaceutical practices and emerge the champion of lower drug prices. Do you plan on doing any of this?

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Hello Martin Shkreli, what was you degree in? I am doing Chemical Engineering, going down the Biochemical engineering route, can you offer my some advice to worm my way into Pharmaceuticals or which path to go through? Thank you.

Have you ever considered the idea that your price increase might be the death of your company?

That makes you unfit to be CEO of a company. If you can't see the forest for the trees, then you can't see the negative side of a decision you make. Good luck to you. I hope your company burns to the ground.

Likelihood of KPTI success? Thank you.

Bad taste doesn't seem to be a problem for you.

And you're not qualified to make the scientific statements you're attempting to make. You have not provided any scientific basis for any of your assertions. This is not an intellectual conversation because you do not have the requisite knowledge to participate. TUR004 has no publicly available information- no MoA. No class of structure. You dodge technical questions by insulting the questioner.

I only have contempt for your dishonesty.

You are so obviously avoiding comments that ask actual scientific questions. Instead you insult the person asking. This guy wasn't even that impolite to you, especially as compared to everyone else here.

So since we're insulting each other here, how did you acquire your status with the maturity of a 12 year old...?

What is it like to know that nobody of good character respects you? Sure, some people respect or like you, but they aren't good people either. How does it feel to be hated by everyone with a conscience?

favorite football team?

Nearly everyone in your field has a negative view of you. http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2015/10/27/what-is-the-reaction-of-the-pharmaceutical-industry-to-the-turing-pharmaceutical-price-hike/

The Biotechnology Industry Organization just voted to remove your company as a member.

You were personally voted Worst Biotech CEO of 2014.

What makes you think you know better than practically everyone in your industry, when the avaialable evidence is that you don't?

Ok, What makes you think you know better than the large majority in your industry, when the available evidence is that you don't?

A large majority of my stomach needs you to buy me a Subway sandwich.

No problem. Thanks for all the shitty, unfunny jokes and insubstantial comments. Oh, and for getting totally clowned in a four-day long AMA. This has been better than television.

What was it like to work with Julian Robertson?

Hi Martin, Do you consider yourself libertarian?

Are you worried that you've made 1) your company a target for people to avoid doing business with at all costs and actively try to destroy and that 2) you're essentially unemployable outside of your company?

Your long term prospects seem pretty bad in terms of being able to stay financially solvent. Why do you continue to put yourself out there when every time you speak, you close so many doors in your life?

Dude, you're fucked. Stop trying to reverse this fuck train and just take your fucking like the shriveled troll you are.

Hello, I put an AMA request in and offered free candy for free to anyone who could get you to do an AMA. No one ever claimed it.

Anyway, since then I've learned a bit more about the costs of FDA approval and I can see how it would be expensive to distribute a drug. However, this drug is so old-- do you still have to go through some sort of FDA renewal process?

Would you consider publishing the analysis you did determine the original cost hike?

Why did you pay so much for this drug? I've read some claims of the price paid but other sources state that it was part of a bundle of products.

Finally, a personal question. Do you ever feel guilty? Not specifically about this or any other business decisions- just in general. Do you ever do something to someone else and then feel guilty about it?

Whatever the case, you are certainly an interesting character.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmARequests/comments/3m00y6/reward_martin_shkreli/

Of course I can feel guilt.

Some people can't, you know?

I dont know why people are down voting everything you say. I for one am glad you are talking.

When your story first broke I immediately believed that you were being untruthful. Honestly this was probably partly due to your appearance- you really do look like a bad guy from a Harry Potter movie; the one who looks so blatantly evil that he will probably turn out to be a good gu- oh, nope, he's really a bad guy.

But, another reason was that in your bloomberg interview you gave numerous reasons for the pricing with not much support and cycled through from one to the next-- previous guys priced it inappropriately, new program adds cost, you're doing it for science, etc. It reminded me of the way a child can never stick to one story when they're lying.

At this point I still believe the pricing is excessive and greed-based. But I now realize most people (including myself) dont have the full picture. Mostly, we dont know how many people are prescribed Daraprim, at what dosages, and for how long.

So I'll leave it at this- I dont know your business and I dont know your industry. I'd consider voting for a candidate who'd say they'd like to monitor pricing and intervene, if I was convinced they could actually do this without causing more harm than value. I say this because I dont have time to understand.

Finally, its pretty obvious that , as a clinician might say, "you have some shit going on". From record of your tinder-encounter with a sort-of journalist to the fact that you are still answering so many questions, its clear that you want to communicate. Either you want to be understood or are just lonely (or you really are the god-king of trolls some people say you are). In any case, I wish you good luck.

So, no kissing ass or sucking dick required?

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Does it bother you at all how ignorant you come across while shrieking incoherently about how everyone else (including doctors, politicians, NGOs, etc) is wrong?

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preposition

I don't think this word means what you think it means.

Nope. Wanna try again?

Are you really just sitting around replying to posts?

WTF? I am not supposed to think you are cool? But that is a pretty cool move. What else do you do when you're not causing internet shitstorms?

After reading through some of the posts here, I'm a bit curious about how well you pay your researchers? Average wage for comparable positions, especially in government funded research like I've done, are pretty depressing for the amount of education required.

I understand that as a business decision, moral or ethical notwithstanding, this was a very smart decision. Unexpected social backlash has greatly harmed the company however. What about the generic approval process made you feel confident that after risking so much capital to acquire the rights, you wouldnt quickly be undercut by other companies?

Time until approval if attempted? Proprietary synthesis? Did you expect it would go quietly un noticed as an uncommon drug and slowly generate additional revenue for the company?

Thanks

Hello there.

How do you see the roles of private research and public research, for the pharma. field, as well as in the sciences in general?

So last year during your AMA, people actually let you explain the reasoning behind the increase, your company's business practices for the poor, and your background. Why don't you add some of those responses in to the BIO at the top of the page? Most of these people aren't going to want to listen to reason - you can at least tell your side of the story.

Also - last year you mentioned that your company provides the medicine for free if insurance drops coverage (great policy btw) do you do this for life or for a limited number of refills?

Will you guarantee that? I'm talking to my specialty pharmacy about this, and they told me that your program could provide a maximum of 3 months. Should I call them out on this and make sure I can keep getting my meds?

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What do you do in your down time for fun? Don't hold back.

LoL is for pussies. Come play some DotA once your balls have dropped, steam name is Icicle

Are you into shoegaze at all? If so, any favorite bands?

I think it is really ballsy for you to do this AMA, and for that I give you some respect.

My question is, what would you consider to be the biggest problem in the American health care system? Is the for profit system in America hurting the quality and affordability of medicine?

Instead of sitting here whining about how others make more than them, instead of raging at insurers for paying to support this, I'd so much rather try and learn investment myself.

I'm not sure how I would act in your shoes, but you have money and I sure want to learn how to get there.

Was your involvement with hedge funds a chance through luck, or were you pushed towards it? What steps could a college student take to get there?

I also find your involvement with eSports interesting. A hobby, I take it? Or is that reasonably profitable?

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Do you get recognized often when you are out in public? How frequently are you harassed by people?

What are your biggest hopes/goals...

1. for the pharmaceutical field?
2. for your company?
3. for yourself?
4. for humanity as a whole?

Dunno if you're still answering these questions but oh well.

A lot of the comment chains here are words to the effect of:

-why you raise prices

-To research better drugs

etc etc going around in a circle. I was wondering if you could provide examples of innovative drugs that you are currently investing in now or have brought to the market? For example on the back of the planned price increase had you closed on any financial deals with a research group to design better drugs in this class?

And if you can't, why should people trust your word that you will make better drugs as a result of this price increase?

A few questions:

On average how many pills did hospitals keep on hand of this medication before the price increase? How many do they keep on hand now? How did you obtain this information (since you claim access has not changed)?

How do you identify who can and cannot afford their medication? What do they end up paying? What safe guards do you have in place to ensure the identification of an individual who cannot afford their medication is accurate?

For those who cannot afford their medication, what is the process required and the time gap (from start to finish) before they can receive what they need? Do they need to do this process each time they need more?

It's obvious guys, he sucked some cock and took it up the ass for it

Why'd you try to gain political influence with Bernie Sanders when you knew he wouldn't give you an audience?

Why not try it with Trump? i'm sure the scumbag would take money from another scumbag such as yourself

Martin, I truly admire the success youve experienced at such a young age. I am graduating in December with my degree in finance and aspire to be as successful as you have been. What is the best advice you have to offer? Thanks

All of your sock puppet supporters were created in the last few hours. This is a bit of a giveaway.

Yes, absolutely I do. Everything that you're doing here tells me that.

You didn't actually answer anything. Why are you such a cunt?

Flippant one-word responses aren't answers, you smug jackhole.

Were you breastfed as a child?

I bet your mom is looking forward to the day you stop.

What's your dating life like?

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Do you endorse any specific Presidential candidate?

Serious question here: have you had anyone try to physically harm you or make a legitimate threat to harm you or your family? Seeing as how you're pretty legitimately disliked by a large number of people right now, I'd be concerned if I was in your position.

Follow up: have you had any complete strangers say anything to you in person or recognize you?

How do you feel about Bernie Sanders donating your money to Charity?

I've read most of this thread with great interest. Some people allude to an understanding of the real reason behind the daraprim price increase, one which apparently vindicates you and your actions, and I've tried like hell to find this explanation, but there's a lot here to sort through. Here's what I think I can infer:

Toxoplasmosis is a rare disease with few patients. There are other similarly rare diseases, with similarly few patients. Most pharma companies are ignoring these for lack of a sizable market. Your plan was/is to acquire the rights to daraprim and then leverage it to develop treatments or cures for toxoplasmosis and other rare diseases that would otherwise be ignored by pharma, because if you don't do it, then who will?

Have I got that right? Did I leave anything out or get any of it wrong?

Thanks...

Even if you are right, and you're trying to develop a replacement for pyrimethamine, and that is your justification for the price hike, that's still inexcusable. If anything, the patients should decide whether they want to pay more for the potential benefit of a new medication being developed.

And if they don't want to fucking pay for anything but the pill, then it should be on YOU to pay for the R&D, not the patients. Why should they be paying for the R&D when their lives are on the line and not you with your 100 million dollar net worth and cushy lifestyle? It's total nonsense. They just need the pill, so sell them the pill for a respectable price, and if they want to help you fund R&D for a replacement then let them donate. Otherwise, you can either not do R&D or you can pay for it your damn self.

What I don't understand is how you can openly acknowledge that you handled this specific situation poorly and express regret for the way that they were handled, but then continue to handle them poorly.

What is going through your mind when you respond to people? It's not enough anymore to be smart, or to be successful. You have to be relatable and distinguish yourself from others while not putting yourself above them. If you think your status is secure, let me remind you that Martin Shkreli's image is the image of Turing Pharmaceuticals, and that image can be replaced.

Guy, let me give you some advice that you'll likely dismiss as beneath you. You don't drown by falling in the water, you drown by staying there.

Holy shit how are you even qualified to have the job you do, and still be so insanely narrow-minded. I cannot wait for the VH1 update on "Where are they now", when you're living under a fucking bridge you clown.

Which products are you talking about? You also have zero competitors. You basically took a cheap fix to a problem and blew it up into a "Get rich quick" scheme. Martin.... There is just no saving you, man. You're a fucking mess. Get it together, you aren't the only person on this planet and you are in a position to actually leave a proper legacy and do some good. Instead you just fuck it up... I actually feel bad for you, you are such a poor excuse for a human being.

PRTA or RARE if you could own either or?

I'm pretty sure /u/martinshkreli makes Turing Pharmaceuticals and it's shareholders money in some way or another, so that might explain why the company thinks he's qualified enough.

Y'know, the reason why the world spins.

How expensive is the drug you took that made you think doing this AMA was a good idea?

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I'd appreciate that $5.

Question: Is it possible for you to cut off your dick, shove it in your mouth, then shove your head up your ass while you're choking on your own dick? Please try and report back. Thank you.

You have been on this AMA for several days now which must tax your time in addition to your nonstop twitter presence. You seem to have an awful amount of free time. Do you even work? Don't you have a company to run?

Cool, but you're still a disappointment.

Help me understand your logic. How does endangering thousands of lives can be a good thing? Also, on a more personal level, do you think that this is a moral decision?

Martin. I have a dilemma that I trust you can help with...

The other day I told my butler I wanted a tuna salad with black truffles. I was served a tuna salad with white truffles. You can imagine the dismay and consternation. The question is, should I punish just the butler, or both the butler and my personal chef?

I'd like to know more about the internal decision making mechanisms at Turing Pharmaceuticals. Looking at the leadership on your company's website, I see six people including yourself in executive management ... but the board of directors page appears blank.

A board of directors at well-functioning companies has people with diverse backgrounds and a wide variety of industry experience, people who can come at a business problem from different angles and can intelligently offer counter-argument and external advocacy. A good board can beat the groupthink and confirmation bias problems inherent in any organization working toward set goals.

I bring this up to ask: where was your board through all of this?

If there's no board of directors in place -- which appears quite likely -- then what are you doing to create internal processes to vet decision making at your firm?

How many times have you hit your head as a child?

i.e., what do you do for fun?

What the fuck? By what measure don't you live a cushy lifestyle? The only way you could possibly say that is by redefining the word cushy. You said you're on vacation in another comment (a luxury which a surprising amount of Americans can't afford these days). Your net worth again is 100 million, which I'm sure you're very well aware of. You most definitely do have a cushy lifestyle.

And you completely overlooked the point I just made that if you so desperately want to fund R&D that your patients aren't interested in funding with the money they use to buy their pills, then you should use your own fucking money. What could possibly possess you to believe that your patients are fine paying exorbitant prices for the drug they need to live, just because you're using a portion of that excess to line your poc- I mean, fund R&D? You have to be an actual, literal sociopath. It's utterly mind-boggling.

May I put you in a dress?

What do your parents, (former?) friends and extended family think of you?

People like yourself could have maintained public image doing shit like this maybe 30-40 years ago, Martin.

Times have changed. You do not get to practice ignorance and pull wholly unethical crap without anyone noticing.

No offense, but I can assure you the hate is coming from all directions, Mr. Shkreli.

Edit: Are you actually going to lower the price or not? Thanks.

It's actually tl;dr.

A simple vacation to Switzerland or the like, I'm sure. I found your net worth online, I'm not talking out of my ass.

And by the looks of this thread, the only premises you don't deem faulty are those which lead to conclusions in agreement with your own positions.

To clear up any confusion, what is your net worth?

They got their figure from somewhere, and it wasn't made up on the spot.

You have really cruised through this AMA with as little effort as possible, avoiding pretty much anything contrary to your beliefs or convictions and shrugging off attempts to get you to confront them with inane remarks.

You don't deserve the wealth you have. I hope you contract a disease for which there is only one efficacious medication, and a (rightfully) spiteful billionaire buys the rights to that medication and charges one million per dose, but only to you. Everyone else gets it for free.

And in case you try to hike your own drugs' prices to pay for it, the medication you need will have a price that is proportional to the price you demand for your drug.

Do you think you will ever regret raising the price?

Man if I don't get a $5 foot-long from your ass I think I'M gunna need Daraprim.

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Okay, follow up question. Why did you decide to do an Ask Me Anything if you weren't willing to put any effort into your responses?

What kind of guitar do you have? I'm about to buy a new ESP EC-401

Martin.. Big fan. whats your brief analysis of BLUE? Also, might as well try... I want to work for you. I'm your age.. 7 years healthcare executive experience, day trader with 100k+ with solid record, driven and profit focused(some would say greedy) Own a quality sensitive procurement company on the side, willing to move, but also have a passion for the healthcare industry since a young age and have connection at highest levels of the industry. Whats it take to get an interview? Any of my skills needed? Thanks buddy!

Would you rather be: 1) Rich and hated, or 2) Middle class and respected? Do not add additional facts to this hypothetical, only answer based on the 12 words, 3 non-alphanumeric characters, and 2 numbers in my question.

Do you think you have enough life insurance?

You should consider getting some. You’re young, so it’s cheap. Besides, you don’t want to leave your wife and children to deal with tax lawyers in the event something tragic were to happen to you.

Still no MoA. Still no comment on whether it is a NME or not. I'd bet you have MoU IP... But the structure is old. Maybe a piracetam analog... or a new formulation of ACTH. You're already looking over Questcor's shoulder for your business model... so my money is on ACTH.

Seeeeerrrriously???? How can you expect me to just take your word for that? Do you honestly think such a statement isn't going to redline my bullshit detector? You've either ignored most scientific questions here or given dodgy "answers." I'll at least give you credit for trying to respond to everyone -- but most of your responses aren't longer than a single sentence.

You really could've gotten a much better reception here if you gave people more coherent answers, even if they were in complete defense of your actions.

You said in another comment that you don't require validation from others, but if that's the case, why are you even bothering with an AMA? The only reason to do so that makes sense for someone in your position would be to explain why you've made the business decisions you've made in a way that allows people to see this whole situation from your point of view.

Instead, it seems like you've mostly just come here to pick petty internet fights with Reddit users whose hearts and minds you could've won. Acting like an impetuous child is no way to be an industry leader.

i actually think that you are the Robinhood of the AIDS.. really how do you deal with people's negative response about your moves? i cant understand why people can't see who's the capital pig in this field.

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Martin, you'll probably never see this, but I'm curious. What is something that you've done other than this recent controversy that you're proud of? What do you feel you do well when not under the scrutiny of your PR nightmare?

Hey! Random guy here that just saw this thread, it's a year later, have you actually done anything you said you would?

What makes you think I am jealous?

I believe your statements as much as I believe your promised price cut for daraprim. The fact that you won't even disclose the MoA means that it probably isn't a novel compound.

Congrats on the new leads and series. If you're fantastically lucky, 1 of those will make it. If you're exceptionally lucky, none of them will make it to Ph 2.

What other CEO you know who has the courage, conviction, and confidence to 1) engage with the public, both supporters and critics alike, and 2) share his own personal investment ideas? Willing to put his neck on the line and help small time retail investors such as myself!! Thank you Martin! Thank you, thank you! Keep your eye on the prize and keep doing what you are doing!

This interview was transcribed from an "ask me anything" question and answer session with Martin Shkreli conducted on Reddit on 2015-10-24. The Reddit AMA can be found here.