Publications

TYPE


ISSUE


TAG

Podcast: The ‘Shkreli Awards’ — for dysfunction and profiteering in health care

We’re bringing you highlights from this year’s ceremony – featuring things like human bones for sale without the consent of the deceased or their families, phantom urinary catheters, and so much more – and some reflections from the Lown Institute’s president, Dr. Vikas Saini. “Showing all these stories together paints a picture of a health care system in desperate need of transformation,” Saini said at the ceremony. “Not just because the stories are shocking, but because often what they're depicting, like Martin Shkreli's infamous price hike, is perfectly legal.” More

“Shkreli awards” recognise most egregious profiteering in US healthcare

his is the eighth year in which the awards have been given. Winners are chosen by a panel including doctors, public health experts, journalists, and patient advocates. The awards are named after Martin Shkreli, the “pharma bro” who became infamous when he bought the maker of the anti-parasitic drug Daraprim and increased the price 50-fold.

Speaking at the ceremony, Lown Institute president Vikas Saini said, “All these stories paint a picture of a healthcare industry in desperate need of transformation. Doing these awards every year shows us that this is nothing new.”

More

This Year’s Shkreli Awards: Here’s Who Made the List

This set of Shkreli Award winners is the institute's eighth installment, but the level of outrageousness in the actions of this year's candidates is the most disturbing, Saini said. There are "regulators and people in positions of authority whose jobs they are supposed to do, but instead they turn and look the other way. A lot of this stuff that happens is because there's no cops on the beat." More