Milligan, whose compensation that year exceeded $15 million, was asked about controversy over Gilead’s pricing of hepatitis drugs. He acknowledged trouble, but cast it as a messaging problem—not the result of an exploitative business model. “We didn’t deal with it well,” he said. “We didn’t talk about it enough.” This was a classic Davos Man maneuver, minimizing his role in human suffering by confessing to communications mishaps, or a misunderstanding. This rendered greater communication the solution to all problems—an implicit affirmation of the very activity he was engaged in. He struck a
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