The Donald Trump of Pharma: how Martin Shkreli has hi-jacked our brand

By now, everyone is familiar with the principal circumstances of Donald Trump’s candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination: a successful figure from outside of politics, very full of himself, takes the media by storm as he exaggerates an ideology to such an extreme that it becomes a lunatic caricature of what’s really commonly practiced.  In doing so, he confirms the worst fears that the ideology is, indeed, inhumane and exploitative.  Sound uncomfortably familiar for those of us in pharma and biotech?  It should. Our Donald Trump is Martin Shkreli.

For those who cannot connect his name with his fame, Mr. Shkreli–a former hedge fund manager–is the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals whose strategy is to purchase licenses for orphan drugs (i.e. drugs with extremely small patient populations), and then raise the price of those drugs to numbers that are obscene by any standard.  How obscene?  Mr. Shkreli raised the price of Daraprim (pyramethamine)–a drug that treats toxoplasmosis associated with malaria–5,500% (from $13.50 to $750 per tablet)!  While Mr. Shkreli is well within his rights under the law, he is far outside the ethical conduct practiced by the overwhelming majority of companies in the industry.

Like Donald Trump for the Republican brand, Martin Shkreli has hijacked the drug industry brand and given critics their AHA! evidence that, by association, every pharma and biotech company is inhumane and exploitative, just as they’ve always suspected.  This is simply not true, of course.  As I have held forth in the press, on radio, on TV and in this blog, the people who work in the pharma and biotech industry–many of whom I’ve known for over 30 years–are among the most humane, ethical and upstanding individuals I have ever met in business.  Just as the patients who are suffering from toxoplasmosis don’t deserve to be treated with the cynical pricing practices of Mr. Shkreli, so too do we in the industry deserve not to be tarred with his brush.

The very nature of the health and wellness business suffers from an inalienable dynamic: we can never be good enough.  Unlike any other industry, where human error is in play and expectations for satisfaction can be reasonably achieved, the health and wellness business is doomed to be needed but not loved.  And it IS a business.  However, people have an unreasonable expectation that good health is a right somehow guaranteed under the Constitution; and that having to pay anything is an infringement on the entitlement to get well quickly and cheaply.  The American people want to have their cake and eat it too and reserve the right to heckle the cake-maker if they feel it costs too much.

How much is too much?  What is it worth to have a history of heart disease in one’s family, and live with a risk level of any normal person due to available drugs?  What is it worth to have Multiple Sclerosis and know that many of the top academic medical centers, funded by pharma and biotech, are all working feverishly every day to produce new medications that can reduce suffering and subdue the condition?  What is it worth to have a life compromised by illness, yet restored to relative normalcy? The same people who wait on lines for hours to buy a $600 iPhone or spend $1,000 a month on Starbucks lattes find it unconscionable if their medication goes up by 5-10% every few years, just as the cost of most other goods. The regular consumption of products from Budweiser and Hagen Daz and McDonalds actually contributes to helping people lead less healthy lives, yet these are purchases that people celebrate uninhibitedly.  I’m lovin’ it!  Products that threaten your health?  YES!  Products that keep illness in check or even cure? BOO!

Such is the nature of our business.  We accept the outrage and keep on with the work of helping to protect people from physical deterioration either from what they crave or what virus, bug or pathogen besets them.  But what we must not accept is the notion that people like Martin Shkreli is one of us.  He perverts the mission and vision of an industry dedicated to improving people’s lives, and in return, receiving fair compensation for the effort.

Today Martin Shkreli was arrested for fraud–not for his heinous activity with Turing Pharmaceuticals and price gouging–but rather for his previous trading activities with his former hedge fund.  I call that a good start.

A holiday wish of mine is that the collective health and wellness industry keeps people like Mr. Shkreli marginalized by actively speaking out against his practices.  Price increases are a fair aspect of any industry.  But obscene price increases are a practice that has no place in the health and wellness business.  For as Donald Trump distorts the image of the Republican party for his own megalomaniacal gain, so too will people like Mr. Shkreli distort the image of a business that–while it never can be perceived to be good enough–is pretty damn good by any fair standard.

Related: EVERYBODY BACK IN THE POOL: THE FDA MAKES MARTIN SHKRELI IRRELEVANT