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Comment by cmiles74 | Hacker News Reader

The surprise voiced in this article is suprising. Now that the NY Times has told me about it, this idea of buying the one company that makes a particular generic drug and then raising the price ridiculously high makes a lot of sense. I wonder if they thought they'd lower the price as sales dropped and were themselves surprised when this didn't happen.

I gotta agree with jug5: "Breaking News: America doesn't understand making profit in business."

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It's not that America doesn't understand, it's that when you actually take a step back and look at it, the idea of it is so deplorable it's a harsh reflection of our society's values that it's legal at all.

I'm thinking about ways to elaborate and explain why it's so awful, but I'm imagining it's obvious to you. I'd imagine this story is making its rounds through all the major news outlets because it evokes soul-searching, not because people didn't know it was possible.

I'm not so sure. There is the doctor that wonders "What is it that they are doing differently that has led to this dramatic increase?" And the answer, clearly, is nothing at all. They are simply raising the price.

I agree the idea is deplorable, but it seems so obvious in retrospect. That the person who has made this idea a reality is a former hedge fund manager is just the icing on the cake.

I'm not sure what the best solution to this situation might be, but I think it's important to recognize that this is _also_ what happens when the only goal is "make more money." In that regard, it should not be a surprising development.

It's surprising because most people are not pathological arseholes and would find this kind of shenanigans repugnant.

This company and this example of abusive trading will single-handedly drive further regulation of the pharmaceutical industry.

I would agree with you in terms of the general population. In this case, however, we're talking about a "former hedge fund manager".

I suppose you also approve of his embezzling funds from the publicly traded company he ran to pay off his former hedge fund clients.

Oh, I see you have an infection that will kill you. How much you gonna pay? Why not bring back smallpox while we are at it? Just imagine the profits!

There is a special place in hell for people like Martin Shkreli.

Just in case hell doesn't exist, it would only be right that the guy will contract a painful and slowly degenerating disease that has no cure.

So you're saying that "jack up the prices to wring more money out of dying people that don't have any other choice" is a perfectly valid, 100% ethical business decision that every single person on the face of the planet should be able to make without any hesitation?

Seems like a specious argument.

I think that it's a perfectly valid solution to the problem of being a business or corporation of making more money. I think it's a mistake to believe that ethics is a big part of that equation and I think history backs me up on that. For sure, I'd like these organizations to be more ethical but I also understand that can often get in the way of their primary goal, which is make more money.

I don't believe it's ethical, but I do believe it's perfectly valid. I'm saying I don't find it surprising and as soon as I read it, it seems almost kind of obvious.

>I think it's a mistake to believe that ethics is a big part of that equation

Yeah, so it also used to be merely unethical to lie about your business' finances. Its illegal now. Ethics IS a big part of the equation. In fact ethics have been integrated into the laws themselves.

>history backs me up on that

What? History also "backs you up" that exterminating an entire group of people is "valid".

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