Company Formerly Owned by Martin Shkreli Fined $40 Million

January 6, 2022

Vyera Pharmaceuticals, formerly headed by the now-incarcerated Martin Shkreli, was fined $40 million for dramatically spiking the price of Daraprim, an HIV drug used to prevent pneumonia in HIV patients. The fine comes in response to the company plotting to block out competitors from selling the drug after they jacked the price of the almost seventy-year-old drug to $750 a pill from $17.50. In addition, Shkreli’s former business partner Kevin Mulleady was banned from working in pharma for seven years.

According to Ed Silverman of Stat News, “In their January 2020 lawsuit, federal and state authorities contended the company used various means to block lower-cost alternatives from coming to market. One method involved distribution agreements that ensured generic companies could not buy samples of Daraprim that would be needed for testing required for regulatory approval from the Food and Drug Administration.”