“Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli was suspended from Twitter after repeatedly harassing a female journalist. The former Turing Pharmaceuticals LLC CEO is best known for raising the price of the HIV drug Daraprim 5,000%, forcing patients to either pay the astronomical price or face sickness/death.
The fiasco began when Shkreli publicly asked journalist Lauren Duca to attend President-Elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20 with him as his date. “I have a +1 to the inaug," he tweeted. However, Duca rejected his offer, tweeting "I would rather eat my own organs."
Strangely, following Duca’s strong rejection, Shkreli's bizarre infatuation with her grew. Shkreli then changed his Twitter profile picture to a photoshopped picture of himself and Duca intimately sitting on a couch. Shkeli's Twitter account also featured a creepy photo collage of Duca with text reading, “Til death do us part.”
After Duca reported the incident to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the social media network suspended Shkreli. “I don’t know if he’s encouraging people to do this, but there’s been a small contingent of trolls telling me to sleep with him — but not that politely,” Duca told Buzzfeed.
“Trolling seems to be an automatic occupational hazard for female writers who receive any level of professional attention."Shkreli has continued to insult reporters who call him for comment about his Twitter suspension.
“I'll come out there and beat the s–t out of you if you f–king keep harassing me," he told The New York Daily News while simultaneously broadcasting the call on Periscope.
The 33-year-old millionaire tycoon built his riches through hedge funds, investments and pharmaceutical drugs. Last year Shkreli made headlines by raising (to international scorn) the price of Daraprim, a decade-old medication that helps fight parasites and viruses and can prevent pneumonia in HIV/AIDS patients, from $13.50 to $750 a tablet. That makes the annual cost for HIV and Hepatitis C patients that take Daraprim a staggering $273,750.
In February of 2016, Shkreli was arrested and subpoenaed by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for his unethical practices in pharmaceutical medicine.
Once again, Martin Shkreli has shown his true colors and has no place trolling on Twitter. Twitter recently banned other “renowned” trolls such as the vulgar alt-right journalist Milo Yiannopoulis.
