Martin Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical executive nicknamed "big pharma bro", has congratulated a group of Australian high school students who managed to cook a drug in their school laboratory that his company sells for more than $1000 a tablet.
The efforts of the Sydney Grammar School students should be recognised because the students were "proof that the 21st century economy will solve problems of human suffering through science and technology", Mr Shkreli, 33, said in a short video message posted on YouTube on Friday.
More National News Videos
- Video duration
- 00:57
Martin Shkreli responds to Australian ...
Martin Shkreli responds to Australian students
The man known as "big pharma bro" congratulates the Sydney schoolboys who made a cheap reproductions of a drug his company charges at $US750 a tablet.
Up Next
Morning wishes, afternoon smears
- Video duration
- 01:28
- Video duration
- 01:28
Morning wishes, afternoon smears
Morning wishes, afternoon smears
The spirit of Christmas doesn't last long in parliament, as party leaders exchange best wishes...then insults.
Up Next
Police car âT-bonedâ by driver
- Video duration
- 00:28
- Video duration
- 00:28
Police car âT-bonedâ by driver
Police car âT-bonedâ by driver
Dashcam captures the moment a driver crashes into a police car at an intersection in Stafford, Queensland on Friday morning. Vision: Channel Seven.
Up Next
Fatal crash in Lane Cove
- Video duration
- 00:19
- Video duration
- 00:19
Fatal crash in Lane Cove
Fatal crash in Lane Cove
Two men are killed after a motorcycle collides with a car in Lane Cove early Saturday morning. Vision: Channel Seven.
Up Next
Silicon Valley is coming Down Under
- Video duration
- 01:00
- Video duration
- 01:00
Silicon Valley is coming Down Under
Silicon Valley is coming Down Under
Queensland will host an international conference called Myriad designed to connect investors with tech entrepreneurs in March 2017.
Up Next
Europe's migrant crisis: a year on
- Video duration
- 03:41
- Video duration
- 03:41
Europe's migrant crisis: a year on
Europe's migrant crisis: a year on
Germany is battling to stem the rise of the far-right and to provide a new life for up to a million refugees. Now, it's looking towards Australia for some controversial answers, Eryk Bagshaw reports from Berlin.
Up Next
Australian Museum's $285 million master plan
- Video duration
- 02:15
- Video duration
- 02:15
Australian Museum's $285 million master ...
Australian Museum's $285 million master plan
The nation's oldest museum has unveiled plans to help it showcase more of its 18.5 million object collection.
Up Next
NT stabbing victim's wife released from hospital
- Video duration
- 00:35
- Video duration
- 00:35
NT stabbing victim's wife released from ...
NT stabbing victim's wife released from hospital
Melbourne man arrested over the outback stabbing death of French tourists in the Northern Territory is yet to be charged.
Martin Shkreli responds to Australian students
The man known as "big pharma bro" congratulates the Sydney schoolboys who made a cheap reproductions of a drug his company charges at $US750 a tablet.
"We should congratulate these students for their interest in chemistry and all be excited about what is to come in the stem-focussed 21st century," he said.
In September last year, Mr Shkreli's company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, gained the rights to Daraprim, an anti-parasitic medication listed by the World Health Organisation as essential.
Related Content
In a move that attracted widespread outrage, Mr Shkreli soon raised the price from $US13.50 to $US750 a dose.
Mr Shkreli said the price rise was to extract money from insurance companies to fund research for better drugs.
But for his efforts, he was variously called "a morally bankrupt sociopath", a "scumbag" and "everything that is wrong with capitalism".
Under the guidance of Dr Alice Williamson at the University of Sydney, the year 11 Sydney Grammar students made the drug for about $2 a dose as part of a science experiment.
Soon after Fairfax Media published the story this week, people on Twitter started peppering Mr Shkreli with questions about the story.
On Twitter, he initially laughed off suggestions that the school students had shown him up, before recording a video statement in which he said he was "delighted to hear about more and more students entering the stem field".
"Not long ago I was an enterprising young scientist student," he said in the 54-second video.
He said he was proud to hear recently that a kidney diseases clinical trial he started at New York University when he was 28 had "hit its primary end-point for the first ever registration trial", and that the first medicine he invented, for a fatal genetic disease, would soon be entering pivotal clinical trials.
"Medical science has brought tremendous advances in cancer, mental health, auto-immune disorders and many others.
"Technology has lowered the costs of a myriad of goods and services dramatically," he said.
I made a short statement on the Australian students: https://t.co/cSQo3jHZoFYou can also watch recording chemistry lessons on my channel!
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) December 1, 2016