Pharmaceutical brother Martin Shkreli received a class action lawsuit Thursday from health insurers claiming he was involved in a plan to create a pharmaceutical monopoly that would allow him to raise the price of an HIV drug by more than 4,000. per cent.
In a lawsuit in Manhattan, Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Minnesota, he said Shkreli – and his company Vyera Pharmaceuticals – created the monopoly on the drug Daraprin in 2015, among other tactics, preventing “competitors from getting the samples of Daraprim that they needed to launch a generic product “.
Shkreli and his company then covered the scheme, publicly denying the effort to block sampling by competitors.
Without competition, Shkreli raised the price of the drug, which is used to treat toxoplasmosis and is 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 plaintiffs and class members, who were forced to pay inflated prices in violation of federal antitrust laws,” the lawsuit states.
Companies seek unspecified damages to be determined in a jury trial.
Shkreli came out in the headlines after inflating the price of the drug that saved lives in 2015 and was convicted of securities fraud in a third-party case arising from two hedge funds he managed.
He is currently serving a seven-year sentence following his 2017 sentence.
Shkreli returned to the headlines in 2020 after a former Bloomberg News reporter admitted he had fallen in love with Pharma Bro while covering his trial in Brooklyn federal court.
Christie Smythe, 38, told Elle magazine that she “fell through the rabbit hole” in her relationship with Shkreli and ended up separating from her husband and leaving her Brooklyn apartment.