GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump criticized pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli on Wednesday for raising the price on a drug used to treat AIDS from $13.50 to $750 per pill,
The Hollywood Reporter reports.
While campaigning in South Carolina, Trump was asked about the issue by a reporter.
"I thought it was a disgusting thing, what he did. I thought it was a disgrace," Trump said, adding that Shkreli "looks like a spoiled brat to me."
Trump compared Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, to hedge-fund managers on whom he promises to raise taxes on if elected.
The reporter told Trump other drugs also cost too much.
"I know, it's terrible," Trump responded. "But in particular, there’s something about that one, the way he raised it and to that extent and then he sat back smug like he was hot stuff. That guy is nothing. He's zero. He's nothing. He ought to be ashamed of himself. And I think probably, at some point, the public is going to get him to reduce it somewhat, but I think what he did was a disgrace."
Shkreli
has promised to lower the price following public outcry.
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