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The Internet's Most Hated Man Will Drop The Price On Life-Saving Drug

by Stacey Leasca

Congratulations, the Internet, you did it!

You successfully rallied behind a good cause and helped Martin Shkreli see the error of his ways.

As we reported yesterday, Shkreli came under swift and hard social media fire after it became known his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, purchased the rights to a life-saving drug known as Daraprim.

Shkreli then immediately jacked up the price of the drug from $13.50 a pill to $750, making it over 5,000 percent more expensive than it once was.

His name, which has become synonymous with being a jerk, has been mentioned over 20,000 times across social media this week.

Even Hillary Clinton got in on the action.

Daraprim has been on the market for over 60 years and is used to fight toxoplasmosis in at-risk people, including pregnant women, those with malaria and people with AIDS.

At Shkreli's new price point, many patients and hospitals in low-income areas would not be able to gain access to it.

But now, Shkreli is changing his tune, telling NBC News he decided to drop the price of the drug after the public outcry.

He said,

Yes it is absolutely a reaction — there were mistakes made with respect to helping people understand why we took this action, I think that it makes sense to lower the price in response to the anger that was felt by people.

But, don't get too excited. Shkreli has yet to announce what that new price point will be.

Shkreli has defended his price increase decision by saying the extra funds will go toward research and development of new ways to fight toxoplasmosis. Doctors and researchers, however, rebuffed this claim saying there is no need for a new drug.

Citations: Drug CEO Will Lower Price of Daraprim After Hike Sparked Outrage (NBC News)