Vyera had been known as Turing Pharmaceuticals when Shkreli ordered the stunning price hike for the drug, earning him widespread condemnation at the time from a wide range of people, including former President Donald Trump and then-Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton. Shkreli's lawyer, Christopher Casey, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Shkreli and his companies profited over $64 million from this scheme." for Daraprim."Ĭote noted that with his illegal conduct, "Shkreli delayed the entry of generic competition for at least eighteen months.
"Through exclusive supply agreements, Shkreli also blocked off access to the two most important manufacturers of the active pharmaceutical ingredient. "Through his tight control of the distribution of Daraprim, Shkreli prevented generic drug companies from getting access to the quantity of Daraprim they needed to conduct testing demanded by the Food and Drug Administration," the judge wrote.
There is no generic version of the drug on the market today.In her 135-page ruling Friday, Judge Denise Cote found that Shkreli, while serving as Vyera's CEO, violated federal and state laws with anticompetitive conduct to protect profits from Daraprim, which until recently was the only drug federally approved to treat the parasitic condition toxoplasmosis.Ĭote, who presided over a seven-day trial in the case last month without a jury, noted in her ruling that the lifetime ban from any role in the drug industry for Shkreli that was sought by the plaintiffs "is a serious remedy and must be done with care and only if equity demands."īut, she concluded, "Shkreli's egregious, deliberate, repetitive, long-running, and ultimately dangerous illegal conduct warrants imposition of an injunction of this scope."Ĭote wrote that Shkreli in 2015 "initiated a scheme to block the entry of generic drug competition so that he could reap the profits from Daraprim sales for as long as possible" when he increased the price of the drug.
Had the defendants not acted illegally, consumers could have saved tens of millions of dollars by purchasing generic versions of the drug, the complaint alleges. The defendants also blocked competitors from accessing a key Daraprim ingredient, making it impossible for them to replicate the drug, according to the complaint. The defendants moved to discourage potential competitors in the generic drug market "through restrictive distribution agreements" that prevented other drugmakers from buying samples of Daraprim, the FTC said Monday. Martin Shkreli (C), CEO of Turing Pharmaceutical, is brought out of 26 Federal Plaza by law enforcement officials after being arrested for securities fraud on December 17, 2015, in New York City. The price hike "significantly impacted access to care," according to regulators. The FTC said Vyera, formerly Turing Pharmaceuticals, jacked up the list price of Daraprim from $17.50 a tablet to $750 each, an increase of more than 4,000%. "Vyera kept the price of Darapim astronomically high by illegally boxing out the competition." "Daraprim is a life-saving drug for vulnerable patients," Gail Levine, deputy director of the Bureau of Competition at the FTC, said in a statement announcing the complaint.