Remember The $750 Per Pill Daraprim Scam?

[DougGuy]

Remember this calculating heartless PRICK who cornered the market on Daraprim, a decades old medication, raised the price from $13.50 per pill to $750.00 per pill after it's patent ran out in 2015? Finally some resolve is coming, years later.

Shkreli Ordered to Return $64M, Barred From Drug Industry



Martin Shkreli must return $64.6 million in profits he and his former company reaped from raising the price of the life-saving drug Daraprim, a federal judge ruled Friday while also barring the provocative, imprisoned ex-CEO from participating in the pharmaceutical industry for the rest of his life.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote's ruling came several weeks after a seven-day bench trial in December. The Federal Trade Commission and seven states brought the case in 2020 against the man dubbed “Pharma Bro" in the media.

Shkreli's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shkreli was CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals — later Vyera — when it jacked up the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750.00 per pill, after obtaining exclusive rights to the decades-old drug in 2015. It treats a rare parasitic disease that strikes pregnant women, cancer patients and AIDS patients.

He defended the decision as capitalism at work and said insurance and other programs ensured that people who need Daraprim would ultimately get it.

But the move sparked outrage from medical centers to Congress to the 2016 presidential campaign trail, where Hillary Clinton termed it price-gouging and future President Donald Trump called Shkreli “a spoiled brat.”

Shkreli eventually offered hospitals half off — still amounting to a 2,500% increase. But patients normally take most of the weekslong treatment after returning home, so they and their insurers still faced the $750-a-pill price.

He resigned as Turing’s CEO in 2015, a day after he was arrested on securities fraud charges related to hedge funds he ran before getting into the pharmaceuticals industry. He was convicted and is serving a seven-year prison sentence.

Vyera Pharmaceuticals LLC was sued in federal court in New York by the FTC and seven states: New York, California, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

They alleged that Vyera hiked the price of Daraprim and illegally created “a web of anticompetitive restrictions” to prevent other companies from creating cheaper generic versions by, among other things, blocking their access to a key ingredient for the medication and to data the companies would want to evaluate the drug’s market potential.

Vyera and its parent company, Phoenixus AG, settled last month, agreeing to provide up to $40 million in relief over 10 years to consumers and to make Daraprim available to any potential generic competitor at the cost of producing the drug.

Former Vyera CEO Kevin Mulleady agreed to pay $250,000 if he violates the settlement, which barred him from working for a pharmaceutical company” for seven years.

Shkreli proceeded to trial.

[dverna]

Bless his furry little heart.

[Smoke4320]

He has displayed a total lack of any care for others or the legal system.....some people don't deserve second chances.

[RKJ]

I hope that guy gets everything he deserves.

[JimB..]

Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.

[farmbif]

just like every living soul on earth he will be judged by the ultimate judge one day.

[hoodat]

I admire "free market capitalization" and hate to see the gummint inject themselves into private business, however---

It shouldn't take the wisdom of Soloman to promote innovation and development, and the enrichment of the innovators -- and provide these miracle innovations for the betterment of society. jd

[gwpercle]

Brings to mind two old sayings :

My Mom - "You Reap What You Sow"

Dad - "Them Paybacks are Hell "

Looks like the little weasel got what he deserved .
People will never learn ... If everyone would just be nice , everything will be just fine .
I try to live by something my Mom told me as a child ... " Be Nice " !
Gary

[dverna]

just like every living soul on earth he will be judged by the ultimate judge one day.

Actually if he accepts Christ, his sins are forgiven and there is no judgement. All sinners go to heaven....or it would be deserted.

[oldscool]

I wonder where the money will go (if any is actually paid back). I have a sneaky idea that anybody that had to pay the outrageous price will see any of it. Let alone the people harmed by not affording to purchase.
Hope this slime ball rots.

[beechbum444]

curious....if he violates the 250,000$ agreement, how much is he gonna make, alot of folks would spend 250,000$ to make 100,000,000$ and if the company is paying 40 million back, how many hundreds of millions did they already make?? The price of litigation is built into the cost of the product and its passed onto consumers, If there is no litigation at the end of the fiscal year, the left overs are kept as additional profit. Its usually 30 percent...

[Bmi48219]

Like he is any worse than the rest of the Pharmaceutical industry. Those making outrageous profits on the needs and misery of others deserve a slow and painful demise.

[JimB..]

Like he is any worse than the rest of the Pharmaceutical industry. Those making outrageous profits on the needs and misery of others deserve a slow and painful demise.

You’d rather that they just stopped developing new drugs? Or if the profits are so outrageous why haven’t you jumped into it.

Not just taking a jab at you, most conservatives seem to become surprisingly liberal when it affects them directly.

[reddog81]

I wonder where the money will go (if any is actually paid back

I’m sure the lawyers already have it divided up. The patients that overpaid for the drugs will get a coupon for a free bottle of aspirin or something similar.

[Bmi48219]

Not just taking a jab at you, most conservatives seem to become surprisingly liberal when it affects them directly.

It doesn’t require a liberal outlook to question why pharmaceutical companies are allowed to charge the American public triple the price for the same drug from the same plant they charge in other countries. The BS that they are recovering their development costs here is guano.
Their commercials and ads about a mission to improve life should end in “if you can afford it”.
But then IMO, natural resources like water and air should be free too.
Companies have made billions polluting our water to the point we now have to pay other companies to make it drinkable.
There’s a difference between liberalism and affixing responsibility.

[JimB..]

It doesn’t require a liberal outlook to question why pharmaceutical companies are allowed to charge the American public triple the price for the same drug from the same plant they charge in other countries. The BS that they are recovering their development costs here is guano.
Their commercials and ads about a mission to improve life should end in “if you can afford it”.
But then IMO, natural resources like water and air should be free too.
Companies have made billions polluting our water to the point we now have to pay other companies to make it drinkable.
There’s a difference between liberalism and affixing responsibility.

You jumped topics, I’m all with you for making companies responsible for their pollution. So, how do you feel about a carbon tax?

[megasupermagnum]

The takeaway from this is that there should be more competition in the medical industry, not less. The only thing the government should be involved in is maintaining that competition. There was no need for government involvement in this case. Almost immediately other companies made their own version, one reportedly for only $1 per pill.

[Bmi48219]

You jumped topics, I’m all with you for making companies responsible for their pollution. So, how do you feel about a carbon tax?

I don’t buy the global warming spiel so using that as the reason for a carbon tax is comparable to confiscating firearms to end murder. The pollution resulting from the use of fossil fuels can be significantly reduced using current pollution control technology; IF said technology is applied GLOBALLY. Carbon taxes (particularly carbon tax credits) are a cheater’s way of saying we’re really trying.
I am saying large corporations, be they pharmaceutical, oil, even ammunitions, can and do manipulate the market economy to increase profits from a population hostage to their products.
As noted in post #1, they can and do stymie development of cheaper or cleaner or more beneficial products, solely to maintain profit margins. Communism and socialism enslave the population to government, Capitalism as we are seeing it now enslaves us to mega-corporations. Neither system is a viable option.

[JimB..]

I don’t buy the global warming spiel so using that as the reason for a carbon tax is comparable to confiscating firearms to end murder. The pollution resulting from the use of fossil fuels can be significantly reduced using current pollution control technology; IF said technology is applied GLOBALLY. Carbon taxes (particularly carbon tax credits) are a cheater’s way of saying we’re really trying.
I am saying large corporations, be they pharmaceutical, oil, even ammunitions, can and do manipulate the market economy to increase profits from a population hostage to their products.
As noted in post #1, they can and do stymie development of cheaper or cleaner or more beneficial products, solely to maintain profit margins. Communism and socialism enslave the population to government, Capitalism as we are seeing it now enslaves us to mega-corporations. Neither system is a viable option.

I’m not saying that it causes global warming, just that it is a form of pollution. Same with steam reduced by cooling towers or hot water dumped into rivers or lakes (both heat pollution). My point is that it’s a lot more difficult than just what we normally think of as pollution.

I think you are right about carbon credits and mostly right about corporations and monopolies.