Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has given the donation of a pharmaceutical CEO who controversially raised the price of an AIDS medication to a Washington, D.C.-based clinic that specializes in the treatment of HIV patients and the LGBT community, reports The Advocate.
Martin Shkreli, the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, had donated $2,700 to the Sanders campaign, the maximum allowed from from a private donor. In September Shkreli allowed a 5,000 percent price increase for Daraprim, a drug used to treat people with compromised immune systems, including those living with HIV.
The drug was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“We are not keeping the money from this poster boy for drug company greed,” said Michael Briggs, the campaign spokesperson of Sanders, about the donation from Martin Shkreli, the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals.
According to The Advocate report Shkreli made the donation in the hopes of obtaining a private meeting with the Vermont senator, in order to explain his position.
Shkreli is now “furious” that this meeting will not occur, and fears Sanders is “appealing to the masses, that he’s just kind of talking out of his rear end so that he gets some votes.”
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