Notorious Drug CEO Wishes He Raised Price Even Higher

Ah, hindsight. If he could do it all over again, what would Martin Shkreli—the CEO vilified for raising the price of a drug 5,000%—do differently? "I probably would have raised prices higher, is probably what I should have done," he said in response to a question at a summit sponsored by Forbes. "I could have raised it higher and made more profits for our shareholders. Which is my primary duty." He added, per CBS News, that capitalism demands it. "No one wants to say it, no one's proud of it, but this is a capitalist society, capitalist system, and capitalist rules, and my investors expect to me to maximize profits."

Outrageous? Absolutely, writes Dan Diamond at Vox. But we should actually be thankful that the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals is continuing to behave this way. Shkreli's comments may be "odious," but there's some truth to them, and making them available for public consumption might be the only hope of changing that reality. "As long as Shkreli is around, provocatively stirring the pot, we'll have to face some uncomfortable truths—and hopefully get some necessary answers." (Shkreli is making enemies over his tricky stock moves, too.)