Former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli, left, and his new lawyer Benjamin Brafman arrive at court in New York, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016.
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But before then, Shkreli is set to appear Thursday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to address accusations related to his time as CEO of Turing, when he hiked the price of the drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750 overnight.
But anticipating a possible backlash, the company warned in an internal memo that advocates for HIV patients might react to the price hike. Lawmakers said his testimony was essential to investigating why drug prices had risen and that if he chose not to answer questions, he must do so in person.
Presentations by Turing executives, part of the trove of documents obtained by the panel., show that as early as last May, the company planned to turn Daraprim into a $200-million-a-year drug by dramatically increasing its price.
Like Turing, Valeant also raised the price of older drugs.
Former executive Martin Shkreli yesterday replaced his legal team with a NY lawyer whose past clients have included former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and rapperJay-Z.
Paes told U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto that Shkreli may need to post new assets to secure his $5 million bond, which was issued following the 32-year-old’s arrest in December.
“So 5,000 paying bottles at the new price is $375,000,000 – nearly all of it is profit and I think we will get three years of that or more, ‘ Shkreli wrote in the e-mail to someone the congressional staff identified only as an outside contact”.
Martin Shkreli, the former hedge fund manager under fire for buying a pharmaceutical company and ratcheting up the price of a life-saving drug, is escorted by law enforcement agents in New York Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, after being taken into custody following a securities probe. 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”.
After rising to national notoriety, Shkreli promised he would drop the Daraprim price – but never did. He noted the company has created a price rebate program that discounts Nitropress and Isuprel up to 30 percent in deals with big hospital purchasing groups.
“THE ‘most hated man in America” Martin Shkreli bragged in an e-mail that hiking the price of a lifesaving drug would be a “very handsome investment”, according to a memo released by United States politicians Tuesday.
But patients were still slapped with co-pays ranging from $1,000 to even more than $16,000, according to the memo.
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He didn’t say how much the price would be lowered, but it didn’t matter-he would swiftly renege on is promise.
