Drug's pricing proves a defining moment in modern healthcare

Washington

MARTIN Shkreli is healthcare's Gordon Gekko, its wolf of Wall Street, the symbol of all that makes people uneasy about an industry that seeks to make money by selling treatments while vowing to care only about the well-being of vulnerable patients.

For days, a seething social media mob backed by an opportunistic politician or two has hammered the swaggering, 32-year-old "pharma bro" who jacked up the price of an obscure but critical drug, was theatrically unapologetic about it and publicly called a journalist a moron for asking why.

Mr Shkreli's actions were shocking for a simple reason: It was a rare moment of complete transparency in healthcare, where motives, prices and how the system works is rarely ev…