Martin Shkreli raised Daraprim's price 5,456% and became the 'pharma bro'

In August 2015, Martin Shkreli's Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired Daraprim, a 62-year-old antiparasitic drug used primarily by HIV/AIDS patients, pregnant women, and organ transplant recipients. The drug had been sold for $13.50 per tablet for decades. Turing raised the price to $750 per tablet — a 5,456% increase — effective immediately. The move was not a response to rising costs or new investment: Daraprim was the only FDA-approved treatment for toxoplasmosis, and its patient population had no alternative.

The price hike triggered a firestorm of public outrage. Presidential candidates condemned it, Congress summoned Shkreli to testify, and the media dubbed him 'the most hated man in America.' Shkreli defended the increase as a sound business decision, arguing that insurance would cover most of the cost and that the revenue would fund research into new treatments. At his congressional hearing, he invoked the Fifth Amendment and sat silent while lawmakers demanded answers.

The public fury, however, was not what sent Shkreli to prison. Federal prosecutors had already been investigating his earlier hedge fund and his first pharmaceutical company, Retrophin, for securities fraud. In December 2015 — three months after the Daraprim controversy — Shkreli was arrested on charges that he had misappropriated Retrophin stock and lied to investors. He was convicted in 2017 and sentenced to seven years in federal prison.