# Martin Shkreli Martin Shkreli became one of the internet's most reviled figures in 2015 after his company Turing Pharmaceuticals hiked the price of the HIV drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per tablet, earning him the nickname 'Pharma Bro.' His trolling antics that followed, from buying a one-of-one Wu-Tang Clan album to harassing a Teen Vogue writer on Twitter, turned him into a recurring main character of the online news cycle for years. ## Origin Shkreli launched the @MartinShkreli Twitter account in June 2011 while running the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management, quietly building a following of around 56,000 over the next few years[3]. The catalyst that turned him into a household name came on September 20, 2015, when The New York Times reported that his newly founded Turing Pharmaceuticals had bought the rights to Daraprim, a life-saving treatment for toxoplasmosis in HIV patients, and immediately raised the per-tablet price from $13.50 to $750[3]. The story went viral within hours, and Shkreli defended the hike on cable news and social media rather than backing down. He doubled down on the villain role by launching a YouTube livestream channel on November 4, 2015, where he ranted, played video games, and gave off-the-cuff financial takes to viewers[3]. The 'Pharma Bro' meme fully clicked into place around this time, with Twitter users, news outlets, and even PhRMA lobbyists using the phrase as shorthand for pharmaceutical greed[5]. - **Platform:** News media / Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2015 ## Overview Martin Shkreli is the hoodie-wearing former pharma CEO who the internet crowned as the archetypal greedy villain of the mid-2010s. The 'Pharma Bro' label stuck after Turing Pharmaceuticals jacked up the price of a decades-old anti-parasitic drug, Daraprim, by roughly 5,000 percent in September 2015[1]. The nickname wasn't just about the price hike, it was about the smirking, unrepentant persona he leaned into every time cameras or a Twitter feed pointed his way[3]. The Shkreli 'meme' isn't a single image macro so much as a running character. Screenshots of his smug facial expressions, clips of him pleading the Fifth before Congress, and his stunt tweets attempting to buy Kanye West's album or interrogate Ghostface Killah became reaction fodder across Twitter and Reddit[3]. Journalists began describing anyone hiking drug prices as being 'Shkreli-like,' and pharma industry lobbyists eventually spent millions on ad campaigns trying to distance themselves from him[4]. By 2017 his online persona had shifted from smug executive to full harassment case, culminating with a Twitter ban after he sexually harassed a Teen Vogue writer[2]. Even from federal prison he kept generating memes, running a business on a contraband cellphone and reportedly arguing with cellmates about grammar[3]. ## How It Spread On December 9, 2015, Bloomberg Businessweek revealed that Shkreli had won the auction for the sole existing copy of the Wu-Tang Clan album 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin' for roughly $2 million, which fed the internet a whole new round of jokes and outrage[3]. Just over a week later, on December 17, the FBI arrested him at his Manhattan apartment on securities fraud charges tied to MSMB Capital and Retrophin, with U.S. Attorney Robert Capers accusing him of running his companies 'like a Ponzi scheme'[1]. Wu-Tang fans lit up Twitter the same day when a federal official noted no seizure warrant meant the album stayed with Shkreli[1]. His meme-generating output kept accelerating through 2016. On February 4, 2016, he sat before the House Oversight Committee, smirked through questions, and pleaded the Fifth, producing GIFs that circulated for years[3]. A week later he publicly offered Kanye West $10 million, then $15 million, to buy the rights to 'The Life of Pablo' and shelve it, then claimed someone named 'Daquan' had scammed him out of $15 million in Bitcoin over the deal[3]. That August he announced a rap album, joked on Twitter that he had shot Harambe the Gorilla, and floated a poll asking whether drug prices should rise to fund the ape's resurrection[3]. The next wave came in January 2017. Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca posted a screenshot on January 5 of Shkreli DMing her to invite her to Donald Trump's inauguration, replying that she would 'rather eat my own organs'[2]. Three days later Shkreli swapped his Twitter avatar and header for a Photoshopped image of himself next to Duca and lyrics from All-4-One's 'I Swear,' prompting Duca to tag Jack Dorsey with 'how is this allowed'[2]. Twitter suspended his account hours later. Weeks after, on January 23, he launched a bare-bones website called Pharma Skeletons to accuse PhRMA member companies of worse price hikes than his own, writing that Marathon/Ovation 'invented price increases' and telling PhRMA CEO Stephen Ubl to 'look in the mirror'[6]. Fortune, Stat News, and Mediaite all covered the site within 48 hours[4][5]. ## How to Use The Shkreli 'format' is usually a reaction image or clip pulled from one of his high-profile moments: the smirking congressional hearing shot, the hoodie-and-headphones YouTube pose, or a screenshot of one of his more unhinged tweets. People typically deploy him as visual shorthand for corporate greed, smug punchable rich guys, or anyone accused of gouging customers. Quote-tweeting a story about drug prices with 'this you?' next to a Shkreli photo became a common convention, and the 'Pharma Bro' label often gets applied by news outlets to any executive caught doing a Shkreli-style price hike[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Martin Shkreli? He is an American former pharmaceutical executive who became an internet villain after his company Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of the HIV drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 in 2015, earning him the nickname 'Pharma Bro'[3]. ### Where did Martin Shkreli come from? He first drew mass online attention on September 20, 2015, when The New York Times reported the Daraprim price hike, and he leaned into the villain role from his existing Twitter and new YouTube channel[3]. ### What does Martin Shkreli mean? As a meme, his name is shorthand for corporate greed, smug price-gouging, and troll-style behavior online, with PhRMA even launching ads specifically to distance the industry from him[4]. ### How do you use Martin Shkreli? People typically post his smirking congressional hearing shot or hoodie photos as reaction images when calling out drug price hikes or generally punchable rich guys[3]. ### Is Martin Shkreli still popular? He is a classic 2010s internet villain reference. He kept generating headlines from prison, including a 2019 Wall Street Journal report that he was running his business on a contraband cellphone[3]. ### Why was Martin Shkreli arrested? The FBI arrested him on December 17, 2015, on seven counts of securities fraud and conspiracy tied to his hedge fund MSMB Capital and biotech firm Retrophin, which prosecutors said he ran 'like a Ponzi scheme'[1]. ### Did Martin Shkreli really buy the Wu-Tang Clan album? Yes. Bloomberg Businessweek reported on December 9, 2015 that he won the auction for the sole copy of 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin' for around $2 million, and it was not seized during his arrest[1]. ### Why was Martin Shkreli banned from Twitter? Twitter suspended him in January 2017 after he harassed Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca, changing his profile to Photoshopped images of the two of them and messaging her invitations to Donald Trump's inauguration[2]. ### What is Pharma Skeletons? It is a website Shkreli launched on January 23, 2017, to accuse major PhRMA member companies like AbbVie, Allergan, and Merck of price hikes he argued were worse than his own[6]. ### Did Martin Shkreli really try to buy Kanye West's album? Yes. In February 2016 he sent Kanye a formal purchase request for 'The Life of Pablo,' first offering $10 million and then raising it to $15 million with the stated intent of pulling the album from release[3]. ## References 1. [https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/fbi-arrests-controversial-turing-pharmaceuticals-ceo-martin-shkreli-report-n481671]() 2. [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/martin-shkreli-suspended-from-twitter_n_5872a046e4b02b5f858933ba]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/martin-shkreli]() 4. [https://fortune.com/2017/01/24/martin-shkreli-drug-price-war/]() 5. [https://www.statnews.com/2017/01/23/shkreli-revenge-drug-industry/]() 6. [https://web.archive.org/web/20180921091037/https://www.mediaite.com/online/martin-shkreli-launches-website-blasting-other-pharma-companies-for-price-hikes/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/martin-shkreli Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library