Story highlights Nostrum Pharmaceuticals raised the price of an antibiotic mixture from about $500 per bottle to more than $2,300FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb responded, "there's no moral imperative to price gouge and take advantage of patients"(CNN) A pharmaceutical company executive defended his company's recent 400% drug price increase, telling the Financial Times that his company had a "moral requirement to sell the product at the highest price." The head of the US Food and Drug Administration blasted the executive in a response on Twitter. The drug is listed by the World Health Organization as an "essential" medicine for lower urinary tract infections"I think it is a moral requirement to make money when you can," Mulye told the Financial Times, "to sell the product for the highest price." According to the Financial Times, the executive defended "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli, who was once dubbed the "most hated man in America" after his company raised the price of an AIDS drug by more than 5,000% in 2015. Shkreli was recently sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud due to mismanaging money at his hedge funds.

Source: CNN September 11, 2018 21:00 UTC