This Journalist Talked To Martin Shkreli On Tinder

If you use Tinder, chances are you'll eventually make a regrettable right swipe. Usually the swipe will result in a funny conversation to show your friends, but for the woman who apparently matched with Martin Shkreli on Tinder, it amounted to so much more. When Mic writer Eve Peyser realized that she had matched with "America's most hated man", she became possessed by her journalistic spirit, and shared the conversation in an exclusive article on Mic.

In case you missed it, the "most hated man" is Martin Shkreli, the 32-year-old CEO behind Turing Pharmaceuticals, and his reputation stems from the drug that's been making headlines in the last few weeks. Turing recently acquired the rights to Daraprim, a perspiration drug used to fight rare diseases like malaria, some cancers, and toxoplasmosis — an infection common in the AIDS community. Prior to their acquisition, the tablet ran for $13.50 per tablet. The company hiked the price up 5000 percent, bringing the per tablet cost to $750 — hence the whole "most hated man in America" thing.

According to Shkreli, as reported by the Times , Daraprim is in need of a major upgrade. Shkreli defends his company's actions by claiming that 62-year-old drug is linked to negative side effects that could be eliminated by a newer version, which would only be possible with the increased funding.

However, people pointed out that Daraprim is considered to be a highly tolerable drug. The side effects that have been reported so far seem minimal, ranging from nausea to dryness of the mouth. The public was outraged, causing a lot of backlash for Turing in the press. In September, Shkreli told ABC News, “We’ve agreed to lower the price of Daraprim to a point that is more affordable and is able to allow the company to make a profit, but a very small profit." The changes Shkreli said he intended to make have not yet been put into effect.

Shkreli's face has been quickly placed on the bullseye of the country's capitalist pig dartboard. So I can't really blame Peyser for jumping on the opportunity to squeeze some answers out of Shkreli — I myself am pretty curious how Shkreli sleeps at night. Perhaps this is the one exception for trolling?

To read Peyser's full account, see her article here.

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