Bernie Sanders is no stranger to calling out big pharma companies for shady business practices, but now just one tweet from the Vermont Senator has caused a company’s stock to plummet in just a day.
Sanders tweeted the following about Ariad Pharmaceuticals recent price increase on a life-saving drug:
Drug corporations’ greed is unbelievable. Ariad has raised the price of a leukemia drug to almost $199,000 a year. https://t.co/EB4nEPxP2G
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) October 14, 2016
After the tweet was sent, Ariad’s stock price plummeted, losing $387 million in value. The sudden drop was the single largest intraday decline for the company in over a year.
Ariad Pharmaceuticals has raised the price of a life-saving drug used to treat leukemia patients four times over the last year. This was after they had already raised the price twice last year. The drug now costs nearly $200,000 a year.
Sanders is well known for being outspoken against Big Pharma. During his presidential campaign he turned down a campaign donation from Martin Shkreli, the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, who had raised the price of a drug used to treat AIDS by 5,000 percent overnight. Sanders gave the donation to a health clinic in Washington.
More recently, Sanders attacked Mylan Pharmaceuticals for raising the price of the life-saving EpiPen.
There’s no reason an EpiPen, which costs Mylan just a few dollars to make, should cost families more than $600. https://t.co/rVWUlMxD0Q
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) August 18, 2016
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