Martin “Pharma Bro” Shkreli’s testimony – or lack thereof – at a House Oversight Committee hearing (or lack thereof) justifiably angered many people. The infamous former hedge fund CEO turned pharma executive raised the price of a generic anti-parasitic drug – Daraprim – by 5,000 percent last year simply because he could. Overnight, he became the embodiment of a pharmaceutical industry routinely accused of putting profit-seeking before patient health.
But policymakers shouldn’t jump to conclusions, let alone legislation. There are many important differences between the “Pharma Nerds” developing innovative life-saving drugs – including Gilead Sciences’ Sovaldi – and the “Pharma Bros” exploiting loopholes to profit from generics like Daraprim. And addressing patient access challenges for one requires very different solutions than the other. First and foremost, it requires understanding why we make a distinction between generics and branded medicines in the first place.
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