A former hedge fund manager will lower the price of a decades-old treatment that shot up overnight, prompting harsh criticism this week.
Martin Shkreli told ABC News Tuesday night that the price of Daraprim, a decades-old treatment for certain parasitic infections, will be lowered. He neglected to say by how much.
Shkreli told ABC News that it would be lowered to “a price that is more affordable and allows the company to make a profit, but a small profit.”
He told ABC that the price would be lower than the current listed price of $750.
Shkreli received scorn for raising the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 almost overnight when his small biotech Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired rights to the drug.
After news of the price hike came to light Shkreli had been defiant. He called a journalist who asked about the drug hike a “moron,” and said the profits from the drug could be used to develop a better treatment.
However, Shkreli appears to have relented as the public outcry grew larger.
The price hike gained attention just as Americans have said in recent polls they were concerned about high drug prices.
Politicians have also noticed. Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton unveiled a plan on Tuesday aimed at combating high drug prices, and her primary opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., filed legislation in the Senate to do the same.
