Pharmaceutical brother Martin Shkreli was assaulted on Thursday with a collective action by health insurers who claim he was involved in a scheme to create a pharmaceutical monopoly that allowed him to raise the price of an HIV drug by more than 4,000 per cent. cent.
In the federal court case in Manhattan, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, said Shkreli – and his company Vyera Pharmaceuticals – created a monopoly on the drug Daraprin in 2015, among other tactics, preventing “competitors from obtaining the samples of Daraprim they needed launch a generic product. ”
Shkreli and his company then covered up the scheme, according to the suit, publicly denying the effort to prevent competitors from taking samples.
Without competition, Shkreli raised the price of the drug – which is used to treat toxoplasmosis and also given to HIV patients with compromised immune systems – from $ 17.50 to $ 750 in 2015.
“The defendants determined that they could impose monopoly prices and make significant profits at the expense of the Plaintiff and class members, who were forced to pay inflated prices in violation of federal antitrust laws,” the suit said.
The companies are seeking unspecified damages to be determined in a jury trial.
Shkreli made headlines after inflating the price of the life-saving drug in 2015 – and was convicted of securities fraud in an unrelated case stemming from two hedge funds he managed.
He is serving a seven-year sentence after his conviction in 2017.
Shkreli made headlines in 2020 after a former Bloomberg News reporter admitted that she fell in love with Pharma Bro while covering her trial in Brooklyn federal court.
Christie Smythe, 38, told Elle Magazine that she “fell for the rabbit hole” in her relationship with Shkreli – and ended up separating from her husband and moving out of her Brooklyn apartment.