‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli Says He’s the One Who Can Save Us from Coronavirus – By Elura Nanos (Law and Crime) / April 6 2020
What would a medical disaster be without someone opportunistically taking advantage of public hysteria? And boy, do we already have the right guy for the job. “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, master of medical mayhem, has offered himself as the cure for coronavirus.
Right now, Shkreli is in a federal penitentiary in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, serving out his seven-year sentence for securities fraud. He just asked for a three-month furlough so that he can research treatments for COVID-19.
In a paper published online, Shkreli called the industry response to COVID-19 “inadequate.” He argued:
All biopharmaceutical companies should be responding with all resources to combat this health emergency. Donations from these very valuable companies do not go far enough. The biopharmaceutical industry has a large braintrust of talent that is not working on this problem as companies have deprioritized or even abandoned infectious disease research. Medicinal chemists, structural biologists, enzymologists and assay development and research biology departments at EVERY pharmaceutical company should be put to work until COVID-19 is no more.
The blockquote above is part of an “author statement” attributed to Shkreli (we’ll get to more of his comments in a moment). There are other names on the paper, but Shkreli was one of two credited for “designing and managing the project.”
Continue to article: https://lawandcrime.com/covid-19-pandemic/pharma-bro-martin-shkreli-says-hes-the-one-who-can-save-us-from-coronavirus/
