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'Big pharma bro' suspended from Twitter after creepy harassment of Teen Vogue writer

The "big pharma bro" best known for increasing the price of a lifesaving drug from from $US13.50 ($18.50) to $US750 ($1028) a tablet has been banned from Twitter after repeatedly harassing a Teen Vogue writer.

Martin Shkreli, founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals, made headlines in September 2015 when he increased the price of anti-malarial drug Daraprim by 5000 per cent, prompting Hillary Clinton to accuse him of "price gouging" and multiple news outlets to refer to him as the "most hated man in America".

But the vocal Trump supporter is in the news again, after his repeated harassment of a female journalist saw his Twitter account suspended on Sunday.

Shkreli first started engaging with Teen Vogue weekend editor Lauren Duca on the social media site after she accused Trump of "gaslighting America" in an opinion piece published on December 10.

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"He has been harassing me for a while. It's an ongoing thing," Duca, who wrote much of the magazine's online election coverage, told Buzzfeed News. "He's been actively tweeting about dating me."

Last week, Duca tweeted an example of the messages she received from Shkreli to her 134,000 followers.

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"I would rather eat my own organs," she captioned the screenshot, which showed Shkreli asking her to be his date to Trump's inauguration.

On Sunday, Duca tweeted that Shkreli had changed his profile as some sort of creepy tribute to her.

Screenshots tweeted by the journalist show Shkreli's profile covered in pictures of Duca: his cover photo had been updated to a collage of pictures of Duca taken from her social media sites and television appearances, and, even more disconcertingly, Shkreli had updated his profile picture to an altered version of a picture of Duca and her husband, with Shkreli's face photoshopped over his.

Tweeting at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Duca asked, "How is this allowed[?]"

In a series of, now unavailable, replies, Shkreli responded to Duca's tweets, saying he simply "made a college" and that he became a fan of her after watching her appearance on Fox News talkshow Tucker Carlson Tonight last month. 

(Conservative host Carlson was widely criticised after the interview for continually interrupting Duca, as well as making fun of her for writing about fashion as well as politics, telling her to "stick to the thigh-high boots".)

"If she doesn't like it she can DM me or block me," Shkreli wrote.

But, it seems the powers that be at Twitter did the blocking for her, with Buzzfeed News reporting that Shkreli's account was suspended by the social media site shortly after they contacted them for comment on the harassment.

Duca has commented on the incident on her Twitter account, asking, "Why is harassment an automatic career hazard for a woman receiving any amount of professional attention?"

In a subsequent tweet, she revealed the fiasco had prompted men to email her "earnestly asking how they are supposed to try and f--- [her] if this is how [she] respond[s] to advances".

"A puzzle for the ages!" Duca joked.

However, there may be a silver lining to this pretty awful tale.

While Duca's Twitter account was being inundated with abuse from fans of Trump and Shkreli alike over the weekend, one tweet went viral for a reason its author almost certainly did not intend.

A message from Twitter user Alan John has gone viral after he suggested Duca marry Shkreli, because feminism leads down a "dark path" of, and this is a direct quote, "cats, pizza and wine"; a dark path many women on Twitter... think actually sounds pretty good?

Some women (and men) even took pictures demonstrating just how great a life surrounded by felines, cheese-covered carbs and alcohol can be.

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