Martin Shkreli just became more disliked, if that was possible. Bloomberg revealed that he is the person who bought the Wu Tang Clan's secret album, "Once Upon a Time In Shaolin," last month for $2 million.
The 32-year old pharmaceutical kingpin received negative worldwide criticism when his company Turing Pharmaceuticals hiked up the price of the drug, Daraprim, which treats potentially life-threatening parasitic infections, from $13.50 to $750 per pill overnight in September.
“This isn’t the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is us trying to stay in business,” Shkreli said at the time. “This is still one of the smallest pharmaceutical products in the world. It really doesn’t make sense to get any criticism for this.”
Shkreli's critics weren't buying his reasoning. They're convinced that he engaged in the worst kind of price gouging.
Price gouging like this in the specialty drug market is outrageous. Tomorrow I'll lay out a plan to take it on. -H https://t.co/9Z0Aw7aI6h
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 21, 2015Now, Shkreli owns the only copy of Wu Tang's "Once Upon a Time In Shaolin" album, an outcome that the group's founder isn't happy about.
After finding out that Bloomberg was about to reveal the buyer, RZA, sent them a statement"
“The sale of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was agreed upon in May, well before Martin Skhreli’s [sic] business practices came to light. We decided to give a significant portion of the proceeds to charity.”
Poll suggestions: which artist should I now approach to buy my next private album from?
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) December 9, 2015Shkreli has a message for Wu Tang fans who are upset.
“At the end of the day,” he says, “They didn’t buy the last album or the one before that, and all they had to pay was $10.”
He also admits he hasn't bothered to listen to the album yet.
“I could be convinced to listen to it earlier if Taylor Swift wants to hear it or something like that,” Shkreli says. “But for now, I think I’m going to kind of save it for a rainy day.”
Contrary to previous reports, Shkreli doesn't have to wait 88 years before letting the world hear the disc. Aside from selling it commercially, he's free to do whatever he wants to with it.
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