(AP Photo/Seth Wenig). Former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli, center, leaves court with his lawyer Benjamin Brafman, left, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, in NY.
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As CEO of Turing, Shkreli hiked the price of the drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750 overnight. “Almost all of it is profit”. “Should be a very handsome investment for all of us”, he wrote.
On Tuesday, the Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released 25,000 pages of documents between Shkreli and his associates. In an interview on Fox Business Network this week about his expected appearance before a congressional committee investigating the price of drugs, he said he’d like to “berate” and “insult” Congress but instead will take the Fifth Amendment.
“You know, his track record is impeccable, and I think that to the extent that he’s representing me going forward, I think we’re going to put our best foot forward”, Shkreli said.
The memos show how Turing Pharmaceuticals and Canada-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals jacked up the prices of medications to boost their bottom lines.
“The documents show that these tactics are not limited to a few ‘bad apples, ‘ but are prominent throughout the industry”, Cummings said in a statement. He said in a statement that the documents show “that many drug companies are lining their pockets at the expense of some of the most vulnerable families in our nation”.
Drug pricing has come under increased scrutiny in recent months, becoming an issue on the USA presidential campaign trail.
The documents provided to the committee suggest Valeant has also hiked the prices of an additional 20 drugs by more than 200 percent between 2014 and 2015. Both companies are now facing federal investigations over drug pricing.
Shkreli drew fire for boosting the price of the drug, which is used to treat infections that are typically found in those with compromised immune systems, by 4,000 percent.
With Shkreli mum, it was up to Turing’s Nancy Retzlaff to defend the Daraprim price rise.
When reached Tuesday, Valeant and Turing said they’re committed to ensuring that cost isn’t a deterrent for patients. “When the company talks about price v. volume, they refer to organic growth, which would have excluded Marathon and other acquisitions”. It said it used the funds from the price increase for research and development and patient access programs.
A Turing executive turned down the request and directed the pharmacy to a “vet meds website”.
He seemed to care about only one thing in buying the drug: getting Turing a billion dollars in revenue.
Shkreli was arrested in December for an alleged Ponzi scheme stemming from one of his old companies.
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Shkreli faces fraud raps for lying to investors about the health of two cratering hedge funds he ran and for illegally using money from a pharmaceutical company to cover separate debts.
