Skip to main content

The Most Hated Man That Ruined The 1950's Medicine

This man named Martin Shreli was a 32 year old chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals at the time when he was the most hated.

He was labeled as the, "morally bankrupt sociopath, scumbag, garbage monster." An these were the names that weren't the worst in this time period for Mr. Shreli. 

All these death threats and harsh name calling was because his company acquired the rights to Daraprim and he decided to raise the price for a drug so it was not affordable to people who really needed it. 

This drug that was developed in the 50's was the best treatment in this time period for a rare parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis.

It was for people who had weakened immune systems such as people with Aids who have come to rely on this medicine. 

This medicine costed $13.50 and when Mr. Shreli raised it to be $750 a pill. This is such a dramatic increase and nobody would have afforded this drug. 

Many people were upset and outraged at this high price for a pill. The public demanded that this medicine be reduced and he was reluctant to do so. 

It wasn't until nobody wanted to buy it and when he received many death threats that he decided to reduced the price for this drug to an affordable level.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Story of Hilliard Brooks Jr's Murder

In 1950 on August 13, a 22-year old man named Hilliard Brooks Jr. was murdered on a bus after he was accused of making a disturbance.  Back in these days what was the disturbance, was he talking back because he had to stick up for himself or was it because he was protecting someone else?  Some reports were very unjust and plain unfair in my opinion.  The reason he was accused of this was because be refused to leave and enter from the rear bus as Jim Crow wanted him to.  This bus driver called the police and a white officer shot this black man and wounded two people in the process.  All because Jim Crow and the bus driver were trying to be big bosses and choose violence when they woke up that day.  Brooks left behind a pregnant wife and several young children. Even though many eye witnesses reported that the shooting was unnecessary, the officer faced no charges.  After this many people were outraged over how this all went down and set the stage for the...

What Was Good About 1950's Cars?

I have to say that 1950’s cars look like they are from a whole different universe. What I love about these cars are the white streak around the front of each of the tires. You have many car brands such as the Packard, Mercury, Chevrolet Corvette, Hudson, Ford Thunderbird, Chevrolet Bel Air, Chrysler Imperial, Chrysler New Yorker, Buick Skylar, and more!  I personally have to say the Chevrolet Bel Air is my favorite looks wise. Many people who had cars in this era were more towards those with some wealth. I noticed that a lot of the percentage of people walked, biked, or took the bus to wherever they were going. Not everyone in the 1950’s had a car but those who did had some money. Lots of these cars were geared towards couples who had children as well. The cars back in this time period came in many colors, which I love! Today many people have bland colors on their cars. Which are their preference but cars with unique or cool colors really stand out. When looking through pictures of...

Why Did Narrators From The 1950s Always Sound The Same?

Commercial radio broadcasting started within the 1920's and moved through the 1950's era.  Soon enough people listened less to the radio and went for televisions as they became cheaper.  This is because TV's back in the early 50's were very expensive that only the rich got to watch any shows or interviews. As you know lots of people tuned into the radio to hear about politics, Broadway shows, news broadcasts, and more to hear about what is going on in the world.  What is shocking to find out is that people who were in radio broadcasts and in motion picture films sounded so similar was because they were taught to speak a certain way.  Many people who taught what is called the transatlantic accent in radio and motion picture studios at the time.  When the radio was introduced to the world, microphones sounded tinnier and had a very different frequency.  Many companies wanted their speakers to adopt and accent so that they were heard clearly by the public and ...