A pharma exec plans to raise price of an antibiotic by 400 percent

“I think it is a moral requirement to make money when you can . . . to sell the product for the highest price.”

That might sound like the sort of thing that infamous pharma bro Martin Shkreli might say. Surely, amid a national debate over drug-pricing and growing concern over health care costs, no pharma CEO in his right mind would deign to utter such a remark, right?

Well, no. That observation comes to us from Nirmal Mulye, CEO of Nostrum Laboratories, who told the Financial Times for a story published yesterday that he would quadruple the price of a generic liquid antibiotic used to treat bladder infections.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb quickly responded on Twitter, saying that the drug, nitrofurantoin, is in a “competitive drug category” and that the agency would be releasing more data “soon.” But beyond shaming Nostrum, the case appears to illustrate the limited means Gottlieb and other administration officials have to get drug makers to avoid dramatic price hikes.

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