The drug company CEO under fire for boosting the cost of a decades-old medicine by 50-fold defended the decision, calling the treatment a bargain at $750 a pill. 
 
 Martin Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager who is now chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, was called out by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Clinton tweeted that she would soon release a plan to combat the high cost of prescription drugs. Biotechnology stocks fell after her comment. 
 
 Clinton’s comment on Twitter sent the 144-member Nasdaq Biotechnology Index down 4.7 percent to 3,556.58 at 1:08 p.m. in New York, the biggest intraday drop since Aug. 24. Health-care stocks were the worst-performing subgroup on the broader Nasdaq index. 
 
 "Price gouging like this in the specialty drug market is outrageous," Clinton tweeted at 10:56 a.m. "Tomorrow I’ll lay out a plan to take it on." 
 
 Turing’s price increase risks making Shkreli’s company a poster child for aggressive pricing by the industry, especially after drugmakers have already been criticized for the cost of medicines to treat cancer, hepatitis C and other conditions. 
 
 Clinton was responding to reports about how Turing Pharmaceuticals in August acquired an older antibiotic drug, Daraprim, and subsequently raised the price by more than 50-fold. 
 
 Shkreli said the drug, which once sold for $13.50 per pill and for which Turing now charges $750, is still a bargain even at the new higher price. Patients typically take the drug for at least several weeks. 
 
 "This drug saves your life for $50,000," Shkreli said in an interview in New York. "It is still a bargain for health insurers. At this price, it is a no-brainer." The drug is very inexpensive for Turing to manufacture, Shkreli said during an interview Monday with Bloomberg TV, though there are other administrative and regulatory costs for the company. 
 
 About 2,000 Americans use Daraprim each year, which treats the disease toxoplasmosis. While the parasite that causes the disease is common, it doesn’t usually cause symptoms, and typically only needs to be treated in patients with compromised immune systems. 
 
 Many drugs for rare diseases have to be taken continuously for years, and cost $100,000 to $500,000 a year. By contrast, Daraprim treats patients in about six weeks, limiting the cost, Shkreli said. 
 
 Higher Costs? 
 
 Joel Gallant, a doctor and the former chairman of the HIV Medicine Association, disputed Shkreli’s comments about how the drug is used and for how long. HIV patients are particularly susceptible to toxoplasmosis, and many patients remain on lower doses for months or years. 
 
 "This is hundreds of thousands of dollars," Gallant said, referring to the cost for HIV patients with the disease. 
 
 "They are not in the game for biomedical research," he said in an interview. "They are getting exclusive rights to a cheap drug and raising the price because they can." Because of the cost, hospitals may not be able to stock the drug, causing delays in treatment Gallant said. 
 
 Shkreli didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail and telephone call requesting additional comment. 
 
 Aggressive Pricing 
 
 “We can understand why examples like these raise questions," said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents drug company interests. "However, Turing is not a member company and we are not in the position to comment on their product or pricing." He called Turing’s price for Daraprim "the exception and not the rule." 
 
 A drug price plan could be a part of a group of health proposals from Clinton, who said Sunday on the television program "Face the Nation" that she had several ideas on health care. 
 
 "I’m going to address them this week, starting with how we’re going to try to control the cost of skyrocketing prescription drugs," she said. "It’s something that I hear about wherever I go." 
 
 The biotechnology index was already vulnerable and Clinton’s tweet was likely a major factor in the decline, said John Fraunces, portfolio manager of Turner Medical Sciences Fund, said by phone. "Pricing is a theme that seems to be of growing concern in the health-care area, ourselves included." 
 
 Terry Haines, a political analyst with Evercore ISI, didn’t think Clinton could actually have an impact. "Regardless of what any Democratic candidate says about drug pricing, his or her ability to make that a reality as president is close to zero." Haines said in a note to clients that he doubted a drug pricing proposal could get through Congress. 
 
 Research 
 
 Shkreli said that unlike many other drugmakers that also take huge price increases on old drugs, his company is investing in research to come up with better drug for toxoplasmosis. Researchers at Turing have identified several new candidate drugs, one of which could begin human trials next year, he said. He said he wants to come out with a better version of Daraprim with higher cure rates or fewer side effects. 
 
 Gallant, the HIV doctor, said Daraprim is already highly effective in combination with other drugs. "No one has been clamoring" for more toxoplasmosis drug research, he said. 
 
 Turing "is being criticized for trying to stay alive," Shkreli said. "It is very misplaced anger." At the old price, there was no way to turn a profit, he said. 
 
 Shkreli said the company had put assistance systems in place to make sure that all patients who need the drug can get it even if their insurance company won’t pay for it. 
 
 For more, read this next: 
 
 • QuickTake: Access to Drugs ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Turing Pharmaceuticals boss Martin Shkreli had previously defended the price riise 
 
 Judging by social media, Martin Shkreli, the 32-year-old chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, may be the most hated man in America right now. 
 
 He's been called a "morally bankrupt sociopath", a "scumbag" a "garbage monster" and "everything that is wrong with capitalism." And those are some of the tamer comments. 
 
 So how did a rap music-loving, former hedge fund manager suddenly become the target of online ridicule and even death threats? 
 
 His company recently acquired the rights to Daraprim. Developed in the 1950s, the drug is the best treatment for a relatively rare parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis. People with weakened immune systems, such as Aids patients, have come to rely on the drug, which until recently cost about $13.50 (£8.80) a dose. 
 
 But Mr Shkreli announced he was raising the price to $750 a pill. The more than 5,000% increase and his brash defence of the decision has made him a pariah among patients-rights groups, politicians and hundreds of Twitter users. 
 
 Other drugs companies have made similar moves raising the price of niche products, but few have so publicly and so unapologetically answered critics. 
 
 The backlash became so pitched on Tuesday that Mr Shkreli agreed to lower the price of Daraprim to an "affordable level". 
 
 Image copyright Twitter Image caption Martin Shkreli, seen here in an August Twitter post, has aggressively answered critics 
 
 Humble beginnings 
 
 Martin Shkreli, the son of Albanian and Croatian immigrants, grew up in a working-class community in Brooklyn, New York. He skipped several grades in school and received a degree in business from New York's Baruch College in 2004. 
 
 At 17, he began his first internship at Cramer Berkowitz & Co, the hedge fund founded by television personality Jim Cramer. 
 
 In 2006, Mr Shkreli started his own hedge fund, Elea Capital Management. 
 
 The fund closed a year later after a $2.3m lawsuit from Lehman Brothers, which collapsed before it could collect on the ruling. 
 
 After Elea, Mr Shkreli started MSMB Capital Management in 2008. The fund would be his launch pad for founding biotech firms including Turing. 
 
 Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Shkreli moved into the pharmaceutical industry after working as a hedge fund manager 
 
 A rocky start in pharmaceuticals 
 
 Turing was not Mr Shkreli's first foray into the pharmaceutical industry. In 2011, he founded biotech firm Retrophin, with the goal of focusing on medicines for rare diseases. 
 
 He was ousted as head of the company in 2014 amidst allegations he improperly handled legal settlements. 
 
 A year later the company filed a $65m lawsuit that claimed Mr Shkreli created Retrophin and took it public simply to pay off investors in his old hedge fund, MSMB when the fund went under. 
 
 Mr Shkreli has denied the accusations. "They are sort of concocting this wild and crazy and unlikely story to swindle me out of the money," he told the New York Times. 
 
 On August 4, 2017, a jury found Mr Shkreli guilty of three of eight counts, including securities fraud, in a criminal case brought by US prosecutors. But they cleared him of allegations that he had looted Retrophin to make payments for the hedge funds. The civil suit brought by Retrophin remained pending as of 4 August. 
 
 Image caption Turing Pharmaceuticals bought the rights to Daraprim in August 
 
 A second chance 
 
 Turing Pharmaceuticals was launched in February 2015 after Mr Shkreli was forced out of Retrophin. 
 
 The business claims its goal is to focus on treatments for serious diseases for which there are limited options. "We are dedicated to helping patients, who often have no effective treatment options," a statement on Turing's website said. 
 
 The company only has two products on the market Daraprim and Vecamyl, which treats hypertension. 
 
 Mr Shkreli has argued the Daraprim price increase was warranted because the drug is highly specialised; he likened the Daraprim to an Aston Martin previously being sold at the price of a bicycle. The additional profits he said will be used to make improvements to the 62-year-old drug recipe. 
 
 Image copyright Twitter Image caption One of Shkreli's first tweets about the Dramaprim controversy 
 
 Mr Shkreli did not take the criticism of his company's actions lightly. 
 
 On Sunday, he sent out a hostile tweet accusing the media of singling him out. "And it seems like the media immediately points a finger at me. So I point one back at em, but not the index or pinkie," he wrote, quoting an Eminem song. 
 
 His tone later softened following several TV interviews where he claimed the profits of the drug would be used to create a better product. 
 
 All of the negative attention may have finally had an effect on Mr Shkreli. 
 
 His Twitter account, which had sparred with critics for days, went dark and then Mr Shkreli agreed to lower the price. 
 
 "We've agreed to lower the price on Daraprim to a point that is more affordable and is able to allow the company to make a profit, but a very small profit," he told ABC News. "We think these changes will be welcomed."
– The drug company CEO called the "most hated man in America right now" by the BBC says he's misunderstood—but that he'll lower the price of Daraprim in response to the firestorm of criticism. "There were mistakes made with respect to helping people understand why we took this action," Turing Pharmaceuticals chief Martin Shkreli, who raised the price of the toxoplasmosis drug from $13.50 a pill to $750, tells NBC News. "I think that it makes sense to lower the price in response to the anger that was felt by people." The 32-year-old former hedge fund boss says it's "very easy to see a large drug price increase and say, 'Gosh, those people must be gouging,'" but that drug pricing is "very hard stuff" for people to understand. Shkreli admits that the drug is cheap to make, but he says the price has to cover "the quality control, the regulatory costs, and all of the other things that come with having a drug company." Shkreli is an "odious pharma executive straight out of central casting," but his company is far from the only one buying up relatively obscure drugs and massively increasing the price, writes Dan Diamond at Forbes. The same thing has happened to dozens of other drugs over the last year, and while media attention forced Shkreli to back down, "the hard part is achieving lasting reform," he writes. (A huge increase in the price of a tuberculosis drug has also been rolled back.)