Bernie Tweet Causes Drug Company Loss of $387 Million in One Day
“Drug corporations’ greed is unbelievable”
Bernie Sanders tweeted that Ariad had raised the price of a leukemia drug, adding his sense that “drug corporations” are “unbelievably greedy.” The result was a substantial drop in Ariad’s stock price.
A tweet posted to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (D-Vt.) Twitter account on Friday afternoon caused the stock of a pharmaceutical company to crash, costing the company millions of dollars.
Sanders told his 2.6 million followers that Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. had raised the price of its leukemia drug “to almost $199,000 a year.”
“Drug corporations’ greed is unbelievable,” the Vermont senator tweeted.
Shortly after the tweet, Ariad’s stock lost 15 percent of its value — or $387 million dollars — its biggest intraday decline in over a year, according to Bloomberg.
The drug mentioned in Sanders tweet, Iclusig, helps to treat a rare form of leukemia, and has indeed seen its price raised four times this year alone, to $16,000 for a 30-day pack.
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
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