This chart shows how the conversation around drug pricing has drastically changed in just a week
That's because he jacked up the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000%. The drug, Daraprim, is used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that's dangerous for people with weakened immune systems, including people with AIDS and patients undergoing chemotherapy. By Tuesday, he had revised his price hike.
But the damage had already been done.
The amount of attention given to drug prices has led other drugmakers who had pulled similar stunts to revise their drug prices, while others are in what looks like deep trouble for their high US drug prices.
This chart shows how many times people searched Google for the term "drug price" in the US in September 2015, compared to the past decade:
The chart shows the relative interest of a searched term over time, which is why there's such a drastic spike in the past month.
It'll be interesting to see how long this attention lasts. But if it does, it could have a huge impact on the way pharmaceutical companies price their drugs.