Drug companies are businesses, too: Your Say

Letter to the editor:

If we expect all entrepreneurs who, through genius, hard work or a combination thereof, to emulate Jonas Salk, who discovered the cure for polio and essentially “gave” the vaccine for the public good, then we are sadly mistaken (“Martin Shkreli pleads the Fifth, then tweets about 'imbeciles' in Congress”).

Martin Shkreli saw an underperforming commodity, bought it, raised the price to what the market would bear, as he had every right to do. Now he is faced with politicians who hypocritically lambaste him for making a profit. How many of us, if we owned the company, would say, “I’ll sell the pill for $13.50 even though I could get $750”? He may be rubbing capitalism in our faces, but I don’t think we glasshouse occupants should be throwing stones.

David Timmerman; Nokomis, Fla.

POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media

Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

I believe in the capitalist system, but drug prices don’t fall into that category. Health care is a tightly regulated industry (both for and against the companies involved) that often has the lives of citizens in their hands.

You cannot let a greedy little entrepreneur like Martin Shkreli run amok. And whether he thinks members of Congress at the hearing he attended last week are imbeciles, he is an idiot for professing it. They can make his life miserable, and he would deserve it.

— Chuck Yanus

Maybe their anger at him will turn into meaningful legislation.

— Eugene Ware-Hill