Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) presidential campaign has rejected a donation from Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, who has been under intense scrutiny over high drug prices, according to The Hill.
The presidential campaign of Sen. Sanders, who is running for the Democratic candidacy, declined to accept the $2,700 donation Ms. Shkreli tried to make.
"We are not keeping the money from this poster boy for drug company greed," Sen. Sanders' campaign spokesman Michael Briggs told The Boston Globe Thursday. Instead, the campaign will donate the money to a Washington-based health clinic.
Turing Pharmaceuticals has been at the center of national contempt after it increased the price of a unique treatment for a rare parasitic infection by 5,000 percent overnight, a decision Sen. Sanders described as "blatant profiteering."
According to The Hill, Mr. Shkreli donated the money to Sen. Sanders as part of an attempt to set up a meeting between the two to explain his side of the story.
Mr. Shkreli said he was "furious" that Sen. Sanders publicly berated Turing Pharmaceuticals and Big Pharma without listening to Mr. Shkreli's side of the story.
"I'd ask him, what role does innovation play in healthcare?" Mr. Shkreli said in an interview with Stat Thursday, according to The Hill. "Is he willing to sort of accept that there is a tradeoff, that to take risks for innovation, companies have to invest lots of money and they need some kind of return for that, and what does he think that should look like?"
Mr. Shkreli went on to accuse Sen. Sanders of "talking out of his rear end so that he gets some votes."