Mastodon

Martin Shkreli Wants to Help Me Save Money on Medicine? It's a Web3 Project?! How Could Anyone Be Skeptical?

Posted by Matt Birchler
β€” 1 min read

Molly White: After five years in prison for a Ponzi scheme and a lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry, Martin Shkreli announces his new venture: a web3 drug discovery platform

Web3 projects and Shkreli were basically made for each other, so I guess this should come as no surprise. From the press release:

"For the first time, any computer or phone with access to the web might be responsible and rewarded for discovering the next breakthrough medicine," said Shkreli, Druglike Co-Founder. "We will disrupt the economics of the drug business by allowing a wide pool of innovators and contributors, rather than only pharmaceutical giants, to profit from drug discovery."

As a reminder, Shkreli really got on the map in 2015 when he acquired the patent for Daraprim (a medicine created in 1953) and as the sole provider of said medication, raised the per pill cost 56x overnight to $750. Forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical that he's now very excited about enriching other people and bring down drug costs for all.

Also, I'm reading their press release in Arc, which I've set to replace all mentions of "web3" with "my butt". It honestly makes this sentence make more sense, in my opinion.