“Shkreli Awards” highlight profiteering and price gouging in US health industry

Merck’s covid antiviral drug molnupiravir and the opioid entrepreneurs the Sackler family were among those dishonoured in this year’s “Shkreli Awards,”1 which single out the worst excesses of greed and duplicity seen in US healthcare over the past 12 months.

The awards are named after Martin Shkreli, the “pharma bro” notorious for buying the rights to cheap niche drugs and hiking the price astronomically for their captive market. Award recipients are chosen by a panel appointed by the Lown Institute, a non-profit group advocating US health reform.

Last year’s place of dishonour went to the Trump administration’s personal protective equipment (PPE) taskforce, led by Jared Kushner, which gave government supplies to well connected private companies that then started a bidding war among states that were desperate to secure masks and gowns for their health workers.

First place on this …