MARTIN Shkreli, the “most hated CEO in America” is at it again hiking the price of a drug used to treat a serious disease.

His new company KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc is planning on raising the price of a drug called benznidazole which is used to treat a parasitic infection known as Chagas disease reported the New York Daily News.

The disease affects more than 300,000 Americans and about 6 to 7 million people worldwide.

At present patients in the US can get benznidazole for free through a Centre for Disease Control application process.

media_camera At it again ... Martin Shkreli’s company is planning on hiking the price of a drug called benznidazole which is used to treat a deadly parasitic infection known as Chagas disease. Picture: Paul Taggart/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The disease is transmitted through the droppings of a beetle known as the ‘kissing beetle’ and can cause heart failure and death if not treated quickly and now doctors are concerned that uninsured patients will no longer be able to afford treatment.

“It’s caused a lot of angst in the Chagas community,” Dr. Sheba Meymandi, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and director of a Chagas treatment centre at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center told the New York Times.

“Everyone’s in an uproar.”

Shkreli told KaloBios investors that if his company won Food and Drug Administration approval for benznidazole, it would have exclusive rights to sell it in the United States for at least five years. He said the price would be similar to that of hepatitis C drugs, which cost $US60,000 to nearly $US100,000 for a course of treatment.

media_camera Not impressed ... Activists hold a protest condemning Martin Shkreli’s drug price hike. Picture: AP/Craig Ruttle

But a spokesman for KaloBios, Edward Painter, said they currently had no plans to raise the price of the drug despite Shkreli’s claims reported New York Daily News.

This isn’t the first time Shkreli has come under fire.

The 32-year-old sparked global outrage after his company bought the drug Daraprim and changed the price from $US13.50 to $US750. The drug treats toxoplasmosis, an opportunistic parasitic infection that can cause serious life-threatening conditions in people with compromised immune systems.

He later defended himself by saying the enormous price hike was simply good business.

Originally published as CEO Shkreli’s lowest act yet