Last September, when Martin Shkreli was doing his best to become the "most hated person in America" with his highly profiled 5000% price increase of a Turing Pharma toxoplasmosis drug, in an article titled "Dear Martin Shkreli: This Is How You Hike Drug Prices" we said hate him if you must, but not for his price hiking practices for one simple reason: everyone else does that.
Specifically we said that "what Shrekli did was not in any way unique: everyone else did it too, they were just much smarter about how to do it" pointing specifically at Valeant and saying that "this is where the difference between Valeant and Turing is to be found. While the entire US population was shocked, appalled and outraged at Shkreli for daring to boost the price of one drug by 5000%, apparently nobody had a problem with Valeant jacking up the prices of nearly 30 drugs by anywhere between 90% and 786% on the high end, with one solitary outlier, Ofloxacin ear drops seeing its price soar by 2288%."
Our conclusion:
... boost the prices of dozens of drugs in the span of 1-3 years anywhere between 100% and 800% and nobody notices (thank you insurance companies). But hike the price of one drug by 5,500% and suddenly all of America thinks you are satan incarnate.
... to which Citron added that "in the Twitter-storm furor over Turing’s recent one-drug price gouge attempt, the media has overlooked the reality that Martin Shkreli was created by the system. Shkreli is merely a rogue trying to play the gambit that Valeant has perfected."
In fact, perhaps the reason why Shkreli was so violently ostracized is because he "has put a face to the gouging of America by pharmaceutical companies." And weighing in at about 140 pounds, a very conveient scapegoat.
Fast forward five months later when Shkreli's career has been put on hiatus in the form of house arrest, when slowly but surely, others are admitting what we said in the summer of 2015.
Enter Bloomberg which writes that after Martin Shkreli raised the price of anti-parasitic drug Daraprim more than 50-fold to $750 a pill last year, he said he wasn’t alone in taking big price hikes. "As it turns out, the former drug executive was right" Bloomberg admits and adds that "a survey of about 3,000 brand-name prescription drugs found that prices more than doubled for 60 and at least quadrupled for 20 since December 2014."
Here is a brief list of some of the other "gougers":
Among the biggest increases was Alcortin A, a combination steroid and antibiotic gel to treat eczema and skin infections: The price soared 1,860 percent, or almost 20-fold, during the period. And a vial of Aloprim, a Mylan NV drug for cancer complications, more than doubled, according to the survey by DRX, a provider of price-comparison software to health plans.
Prices for three skin gels from the small company Novum Pharma LLC, including Alcortin A, have soared 1,700 percent of more. Novum, founded in 2015, is “focused on acquiring and licensing under promoted/mature products,” according to its website. DRX data show that the majority of the increases occurred in May 2015, after Novum acquired the drugs.
Among cancer medicines that doubled in price is leukemia drug Oncaspar, which Baxalta Inc. boosted by 125 percent after acquiring it from Sigma-Tau Finanziaria Spa. Baxalta said the price adjustment will help fund testing of new formulations, and that it plans to pursue clinical research to explore the benefits of Oncaspar in other cancer.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., which in recent months has been under fire for its pricing was among the most aggressive, with 13 drugs that doubled or more since December 2014. That’s more than any other large company, the survey found. The heart drug Isuprel soared 720 percent over the period, including 525 percent right after Valeant bought the rights to sell it.
Even after soaring prices became an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign, the cost of many drugs has continued to rise at annual rates of more than 10 percent. Drugmakers raised the prices of products as wide-ranging as erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, heart treatments, dermatology medicine and even brands that long have lost their patents. While specialty companies have had the steepest hikes, giants such as Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc kept pushing through smaller rises.
“The data shows that price increases are an integral part of the business plan,” said Jim Yocum, executive vice president at DRX.
Precisely, and guess what Shkreli was to an industry in which what he did was ordinary course of business? Nothing more than a scapegoat, one meant to coalesce the entire public's anger on just one diminutive person.
However, now that Shkreli is under house arrest and is no longer a conveniet scapegoat, and since nothing has changed in an industry in which the rising druh price continue explicitly because they are permitted by a government which is the single biggest recipient of lobby dollars from the pharma industry, and thus is really the culprit behind the "Shrekli" phenomenon, who will take the blame next?
More importantly, where is the outrage? Or with Shkreli wearing an ankle bracelet, does nobody care any more that drug prices continue to surge with every passing year now that "America's most hated man" is looking at years behind bars?
We can't help but wonder: was Martin Shkreli nothing more than a distraction to the real corruption taking place behind the scenes.
Finally, for those who want to root out the real cause of runaway US drug prices, look no further than your government: