Martin Shkreli Wishes He Could Charge More for $750 Pill

After becoming a congressional whipping boy and an icon of corporate greed for jacking up the price of a medication by 5,000 percent, CEO Martin Shkreli has one regret: he should have charged more than $750 a pill.

Shkreli aired the sentiment on Thursday at a New York health care gathering, Politico reports.

"I think I could have it raised it higher and made even more profit," Shkreli said at the Forbes Healthcare Summit. His detractors should try being a CEO, he said: "See how well you do."

The head of Turing Pharmaceuticals claims his only job is to make money for investors and that pharmaceutical companies should be able to operate like any money-making corporation.

Shkreli's company bought Daraprim in August and quickly raised the per-pill price from $13.50 to $750. Daraprim is the cornerstone component of a combination of two or three drugs used to treat toxoplasmosis, an infection in the brain that can cause blindness, seizures, and neurologic deficits in movement. It is acquired by ingesting the toxoplasmosis organism via undercooked meat and contamination with cat feces. People with immune system deficiencies, especially people with HIV, are particularly at risk.

Shkreli's decision to use Dauraprim as a cash cow led to congressional probes, investigations from the New York attorney general, and rebukes from politicians, including Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

"I know society can't put you in jail for violating your fiduciary responsibility," Shkreli said Thursday.