It was reported that Shkreli was charged in an indictment which was unrelated to the drug price hike imposed by his company Turing Pharmaceuticals.
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Martin Shkreli, infamous for reselling Daraprim 4,000 times more than its original price, has been arrested for security fraud charges.
Shkreli was replaced by Turing Chairman Ron Tilles, who said in a statement that the company was committed to continuing to make its flagship drug, Daraprim, which is used to treat an infection called toxoplasmosis in AIDS patients.
The charges against Shkreli are related to his tenure as a manager of a hedge fund before he founded Turing.
Walgreens said in an emailed statement that it has “urged Turing to expand the number of specialty pharmacies to promote greater access, and it is our understanding that they will be doing so in the near future”.
The move sparked widespread criticism – first by medical groups such as the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association, followed by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump.
It didn’t take long for Twitter to react to the reports that pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli had been arrested on Thursday morning. Shkreli founded the company early in 2011 and was sued by Retrophin and fired last fall after his alleged misappropriations were revealed. Reuters said it had “witnessed” the arrest.
“Among the accusations leveled by the Securities Exchange Commission: that when Shkreli stated in 2010 that his hedge fund was managing $35 million in assets, the fund actually had less than a combined $1,000 in its bank and brokerage accounts”. He was released on $5 million bail.
The Deerfield-based company has been calling for Turing to lower the price.
Shkreli said that insurance and other programs would allow patients to get the drug despite the cost and that the profits are helping fund research into new treatments.
Last month, Shkreli acquired a majority stake in publicly traded drugmaker KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. and became CEO of that company too. There’s no word yet on whether he’ll remain at the helm there. KaloBios, which planned to shut down operations, named Shkreli its CEO on November 20, after he and a consortium of investors bought about 70 per cent of the company’s outstanding shares.
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On Thursday, Robert Weissman, president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, said Shkreli got “a deserved comeuppance”. Their price fell to $23.59.
