Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump railed against Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli, who recently raised the price of life-saving treatment Daraprim by over 5,000%.
“He looks like a spoiled brat to me,” said Trump. “He’s a hedge fund guy. I thought it was disgusting what he did.”
Trump made the comments at a press conference in South Carolina Wednesday. He spent the evening campaigning and spoke at a meeting of the Greater Charleston Business Alliance.
Shkreli has become a lightening rod around the issue of out-of-control drug prices. Hillary Clinton called the CEO out for “pure price gouging” this week, while also releasing her health plan that would try limit the growing effect of expensive drugs.
Trump went on to say that the Turing CEO “ought to be ashamed of himself” after Shkreli went on a media offensive, calling the massive price raise “a great thing for society.”
Shkreli has since said that he will reduce the cost for Daraprim, a medicine that treats the dangerous parasitic infection toxoplasmosis, though didn’t say by how much or when the price cut would go into effect.
