Martin Shkreli

Martin Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager and CEO of two pharma firms, was once called the most hated man in Americafor jacking up the cost of a lifesaving antiparasitic drug from $13.50 to $750 per pill. His incredibly short jaunt in prison for unrelated securities fraud has seemed to put him in mind that the best way to make a return to glory is to somehow get the incredibly scummy pharmaceutical industry—in particular the drug discovery side of the business—to install itself into Web3 infrastructure.

Last month, Shkreli announced he was at the head of a new company called Druglike. The stated general concept is to “democratize” the early drug discovery business by offering tools and software for underfunded groups or developing nations who can’t access more expensive tech.

No, they’re not wrong about the expense of drug discovery operations, but it’s still unclear at this early stage how blockchain technology will make tech any cheaper. Will Druglike develop its own software accessible only on the blockchain? How will that be monetized? Why is the man who hiked a life-saving drug up 5,000% the face of this initiative? So many questions, and very few answers.

So it probably doesn’t help that this month, Shkreli’s crypto account was reportedly hacked, losing over160 million MSI(which if you want to know, refers to the token Martin Shkreli Inu), which was to be the token used for the pharma bro’s blockchain initiatives. The funds went to an unknown account, and the head of Druglike has remained mum about what his next steps are.