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Wednesday,December23,2015The Nugget Newspaper,Sisters,Oregon
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The Nugget will close at 3 p.m.
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ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
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TotheEditor:
WhatawonderfulprogramIwitnessedat
SistersAthletic Club last Friday afternoon.
SistersHighSchoolLifeSkillsstudentsare
allowed access to our SistersAthletic Club
pool for swimming lesson and water skills
enrichmentexperiencethatI’msurechanges
lives.
AsIviewedtheactivityinthepool,Iwas
amazedatalltheexcitementandwondered
what was going on. The joy these students
weresharingwaswortheveryminuteIwasn’t
allowedinthepool.
ItseemsthatTateMetcalf,SistersAthletic
ClubCEO,aquaticsstaff,andJoshNordell,
Sisters High School instructor have teamed
togetherinthisefforttoproviderecreational
activitiesthatcouldnothaveoccurredwith-
outthiscollaborativeagreementoftwogreat-
heartedmen.
After the six-week SistersAthletic Club
experienceIfindthatMr.Nordellwillpartner
withHoodooinawinterenrichmentprogram.
WhatagreatjobbeingdoneatSistersHigh
School,anditbenefitsusasthoseparticipants
who may not have had these opportunities
withouttheeffortsshownbyallinvolved.
Inthespiritoftheseason,thankyouTate
andtheclubforsupportingthisonce-a-year,
six-week,45-minuteskillsclassthatcontrib-
utes so much to our school budget. Thank
you, Josh Nordell, for going the extra mile
inprovidingtheinsightintotheneedsofour
students.
MerryChristmastoallinvolved.
GregJohnson
s
s
s
TotheEditor:
Wewouldliketothankeveryoneinvolved
in this past weekend’s Sisters High Desert
ChoraleChristmasconcerts.
Over 65 singers, bell ringers, children’s
choirandvariousinstrumentalsoloistscome
togethereveryyeartomaketheseconcertsa
hugesuccess.Theircombinedeffortandhard
work is most appreciated. These concerts
embodytheholidayspiritandhavebecomea
Sisterstraditionenjoyedbyall.
IreneLidenandLolaKnox
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
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Snow
Snow showers
Partly sunny
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35/17
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N
Robert B.
Reich
American Voices
MartinShkreli,theformer
hedge-fundmanagerturned
pharmaceutical CEO who
was arrested last week, has
beendescribedasasociopath
andworse.Inreality,he’sa
brasherandlargerversionof
what others in finance and
incorporatesuitesdoallthe
time.
Federal prosecutors are
charging him with conning
wealthyinvestors.
Lyingtoinvestorsisille-
gal, of course, but it’s per-
fectlynormaltousehypeto
lurerichinvestorsintohedge
funds.Andthelinebetween
thetwoisn’talwaysdistinct.
Perhapsprosecutorswent
after Shkreli because they
couldn’t nail him for his
escapadesasapharmaceuti-
cal executive, which were
completelylegal—although
vile.
Shkrelitookoveracom-
pany with the rights to a
62-year-olddrugusedtotreat
toxoplasmosis,adevastating
parasitic infection that can
causebraindamageinbabies
and people withAIDS. He
thenpromptlyraiseditsprice
from$13.50to$750apill.
When the media and
politicians went after him,
Shkreli was defiant, saying
“ourshareholdersexpectus
tomakeasmuchasmoneyas
possible.”Hesaidhewished
hehadraisedthepriceeven
higher.
Thatwastoomucheven
for the Pharmaceutical
ResearchandManufacturers
of America, Big Pharma’s
trade group, which com-
plained indignantly that
Shkreli’scompanywasjust
aninvestmentvehicle“mas-
querading”asapharmaceuti-
calcompany.
Maybe Big Pharma
doesn’t want to admit that
most pharmaceutical com-
panieshavebecomeinvest-
mentvehicles.Iftheydidn’t
deliver for their inves-
tors, they’d be taken over
by “activist” investors and
private-equitypartnerswho
would.
Thehypocrisyisstunning.
Justthreeyearsago,Forbes
MagazinepraisedShkrelias
one of its “30 under 30 in
Finance”whowas“battling
billionaires and entrenched
drugindustryexecutives.”
Last month, Shkreli got
control of a company with
rightstoacheapdrugused
fordecadestotreatChagas
disease in Latin America.
Hisaimwastogetthedrug
approvedintheUnitedStates
andchargetensofthousands
of dollars for a course of
treatment. Investors who
backed Shkreli in this ven-
turedidwell.Thecompany’s
sharepriceinitiallyshotup
fromunder$2tomorethan
$40.
While other pharmaceu-
tical companies don’t dra-
matically raise their drug
pricesinonefellswoop,as
did Shkreli, they would if
theythoughtitwouldleadto
fatprofits.Manyhavebeen
increasingtheirpricesmore
than10percentayear—still
farfasterthaninflation—on
drugsusedoncommondis-
eases such as cancer, high
cholesterolanddiabetes.
This has imposed a far
bigger burden on health
spending than Shkreli’s
escapades, making it much
harderforAmericanstopay
fordrugstheyneed.Evenif
they’reinsured,mostpeople
are paying out big sums in
copaymentsanddeductibles.
Not to mention the
impact on private insurers,
Medicare, state Medicaid,
prisons and the Veterans
HealthAdministration.
And the prices of new
drugsaresky-high.Pfizer’s
new one to treat advanced
breast cancer costs $9,850
a month. According to an
analysis by the Wall Street
Journal, that price isn’t
based on manufacturing or
researchcosts.Instead,Pfizer
setthepriceashighaspos-
siblewithoutpushingdoctors
andinsurerstowardalterna-
tivedrugs.
Unlikemostothercoun-
tries, the United States
doesn’tcontroldrugprices.
It leaves pricing up to the
market.Whichenablesdrug
companiestochargeasmuch
asthemarketwillbear.
So what, exactly, did
Martin Shkreli do wrong,
by the standards of today’s
capitalism? He played the
samegamemanyothersare
playingonWallStreetandin
corporatesuites.Hewasjust
moreaudaciousaboutit.
It’s easy to go after bad
guys,muchhardertogoafter
badsystems.
Shkreli may be a rotten
apple.Buthedgefundsand
the pharmaceutical indus-
try are two rotten systems
thatarecostingAmericansa
bundle.
© 2015 By Robert Reich;
Distributed by Tribune
Content Agency, LLC
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.