Bad News for Greedy CEO Who Price Gouged Life-Saving Drug

This is proof that you don’t have to be evil to make money.

Martin Shkreli, the CEO who came under fire last month after his company raised the price of a life-saving drug, might soon be out of business. Last month Shkreli’s company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, spiked Daraprim’s price by more than 5,000 percent practically over night. The increase took the drug from $13.50 per tablet to $750 and sparked internet outrage. But now, a San Diego-based company, Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, has stepped up to offer an alternative drug for less than $1 a pill, CNN reported.

Imprimis’s substitute drug can be used to treat toxoplasmosis, an infection that many HIV/AIDS, cancer patients and other people with compromised immune systems have relied on Daraprim to control for the past 60 years.

Heroic…uhh…pharmaceutical company savagely undercuts Martin Shkreli’s pill scam. https://t.co/7PITs1qPzA pic.twitter.com/ZmHuCevKV1

— Gawker (@Gawker) October 23, 2015

In response to the outpouring of criticism, Shkreli announced in late September that he would lower the cost of the medication, but he has yet to do so.

“The extent to which companies have raised their prices has gotten so out of control that we can do a lot more,” Imprimis CEO Mark Baum told Mashable. “There’s so much we can do to correct what these guys are doing.”

Martin Shkreli’s AIDS drug scam was just foiled by a rival company not run by a-holes. https://t.co/yS9gM8FMsl pic.twitter.com/YfbIZMMiNr

— someecards (@someecards) October 23, 2015

Imprimis’s solution is reasonably priced without being an act of charity — the company still expects to turn a considerable profit, even with the relatively low cost of the drug, Mashable reported.

Shkreli also made headlines this month after the New York attorney general’s office opened an investigation into him and then again when presidential candidate Bernie Sanders rejected his campaign donation.