New York Attorney General Letitia James Monday filed a lawsuit against imprisoned “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli attempting to block him from working in the pharmaceutical industry ever again.
The complaint, filed with the Federal Trade Commission, accuses Vyera Pharmaceuticals — formerly Shkreli’s company Turing — of working to edge out industry competition in order to continue selling the drug Daraprim for an exorbitant price.
Shkreli, 36, earned himself the moniker of “Most hated man in the world” for hiking up the price of the AIDS drug nearly 5,000 percent while serving as head of Turing during August 2015.
As part of the suit, James asks a judge to bar Shkreli — who’s working from prison as he serves out a seven-year sentence for securities fraud — to block the felon from the pharma industry for the rest of his life.
The suit also seeks to bar his business partner, Kevin Mulleady.
“Martin Shkreli and Vyera not only enriched themselves by despicably jacking up the price of this life-saving medication by 4,000 percent in a single day, but held this critical drug hostage from patients and competitors as they illegally sought to maintain their monopoly,”James said in a statement. “We filed this lawsuit to stop Vyera’s egregious conduct, make the company pay for its illegal scheming, and block Martin Shkreli from ever working in the pharmaceutical industry again.
“We won’t allow ‘Pharma Bros’ to manipulate the market and line their pockets at the expense of vulnerable patients and the health care system,” she added.
Shkreli lawyers Kandis Kovalsky and Edward Kang called the suit baseless and took particular umbrage with James’ calling Shkreli a “Pharma Bro.”
“As is evident from the Attorney General’s comments, including her use of the pejorative term ‘Pharma Bro’ to refer to Mr. Shkreli, the lawsuit seeks to punish Mr. Shkreli based on his reputation, not on the conduct,” the lawyers wrote in a statement. “Mr. Shkreli looks forward to defeating this baseless and unprecedented attempt by the FTC and the Attorney General’s Office to sue an individual for monopolizing a market.”
A lawyer for Mulleady could not be immediately reached.
Shkreli is currently imprisoned at FCI Allenwood in Pennsylvania. He’s scheduled for release in September 2023.
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January 28, 2020 at 06:57AM
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New York AG wants to ban Martin Shkreli for life from pharma industry - New York Post
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