WASHINGTON, May 27 (UPI) — Former pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli, also known as the “pharma bro,” endorsed Donald Trump for president on Twitter on Thursday.
Shkreli earned national scorn after his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, purchased the drug anti-parasitic drug Daraprim, used by patients infected with Malaria, and also commonly prescribed for AIDS patients, and raised the price 5,000 percent.
Shkreli said he has had no contact with Trump, but that he supports him over Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, whom he called “soulless.”
Trump has not responded to Shkreli’s endorsement, but The Hill points out Trump was asked about the Turing scandal in September and he dismissed Shkreli as a lightweight.
“He looks like a spoiled brat to me,” Trump said in September. “You want to know the truth? He looks like a spoiled brat.
“That guy is nothing. He’s zero. He’s nothing. He ought to be ashamed of himself.”
Shkreli, 33, who was subpoenaed to testify before Congress after the Turing incident, has since been indicted by the federal government for allegedly running another drug-maker, Retrophin, as a quasi-Ponzi scheme.
He is awaiting trial.
