Stephen Saad’s frustration at Aspen being branded a "price gouger" that drove up the cost of life-saving medicine for profit is palpable. In an interview with the Financial Mail, the 53-year-old says Aspen Pharmacare has been the victim of a "perfect storm" that has led to his company being unfairly cast as a villain. Saad has had perhaps his toughest two months since he and Gus Attridge founded Aspen 20 years ago in a small house in Greyville, Durban, and became the dazzling success story of SA entrepreneurship in the new millennium. In April, accusations of price gouging in Europe rocked Aspen, as The Times of London splashed the story "drug giant’s secret plan to destroy cancer medicine" across its pages. The Times said the cost of busulfan, used by leukaemia patients, spiked from £5.20 to £65.22 in 2013, while chlorambucil, a chemotherapy medication, rose from £8.36 to £40.51 a pack. Then, last week, the competition commission of SA decided to launch its own probe into three onc...
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