Earlier this week, “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli made news when his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised prices on a life-saving drug byroughly 4,000 percent. Shkreli’s decision to raise the cost of Daraprim, a prescription used primarily by HIV patients, from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill, has caused public outcry. At the same time, Koch crony and former Americans for Prosperity Vice President Phil Kerpen argued against prescription price controls in an Idaho Press-Tribune op-ed:

Health insurance premiums are rising because of Obamacare. And there is still one year left of the assorted reinsurance programs designed to mask premium increases, suggesting next year’s jumps will be even more eye-popping.

…

The damage done by applying price controls to prescription drugs will be catastrophic. 

Kerpen is now president of American Commitment, which received 87 percent of its funding from Koch organizations between 2011 and 2013. Along with AFP, Kerpen also previously worked for Koch allies, the Club for Growth and the Cato Institute.

Under the auspices of “free market principles,” the Koch brothers have a record of arguing against regulations for their own personal gain, no matter what it may cost others along the way. And as a mouthpiece of the Kochs, Kerpen seems no different.

Prescription price caps could literally save lives, and it’s been reported that Shkreli, at least, may have realized this and is considering lowering Daraprim’s price. The same cannot be said for the Kochs and their cronies such as Kerpen — nothing will stop them from attacking health care reform and hurting everyday people struggling with the crippling costs of prescription drugs, all to put more money in the pockets of special interest billionaires like the Kochs.