“Pharma Bro” Shkreli banned for life from the pharmaceutical industry Drug News

Martin Shkreli was also sentenced to pay $ 64 million for monopolizing the life-saving drug market.

Martin Shkreli, convicted of “Pharma Bro,” slammed by a 2015 drug price scandal, was sentenced to pay $ 64 million for monopolizing the life-saving drug market.

Shkreli, a former CEO of Vyera Pharmaceuticals LLC, was banned for life in the pharmaceutical industry on Friday by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan in a ruling against the competition.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the lawsuit with six other states and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, said in a statement that Shkrel was “driven by jealousy” and “greed” when he decided to “raise the price of an illegal.” a life-saving drug that hung over American lives. ”

#HAUSTEN: Martin Shkreli ‘Pharma Bro’ is no more. A court has found that the former director of Vyera Pharma illegally monopolized the Daraprim drug market.

The powerful have not made their own rules, even though Shkrelik believes that money regulates everything around him.

– NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) January 14, 2022

Shkreli is already serving a seven-year sentence for securities fraud while managing two hedge funds, even though the same drug – Daraprim – is in the middle of both cases.

Vyera, then known as Turing Pharmaceuticals, was launched by Shkreli in 2015. It was then that he acquired Daraprim, the only supplier that was once used to treat a parasitic infection that was once affordable. Shkrelik then raised the price from $ 17.50 to $ 750 per tablet.

Cote found that Shkreli had entered into illegal agreements with generic drug manufacturers to delay the introduction of cheaper versions of the drug after raising the price.

“Shkreli has no doubt that his intention was to obstruct generic companies from launching competitive products that would threaten the price of Daraprim,” the judge wrote. “The prosecution has shown that the restrictions imposed by Viya have succeeded in doing so.”

Last month, Vyera and former CEO Kevin Mulleady agreed to pay $ 40 million to settle their participation in a federal lawsuit filed by New York and other states.

(Updates with case details)