Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli was slapped on Thursday with a class action lawsuit from health insurers claiming he was involved in a plan to create a pharmaceutical monopoly that would allow him to increase the price of an HIV drug by more than 4,000 percent.
In the federal lawsuit in Manhattan, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Shkreli – and his company Vyera Pharmaceuticals – said the monopoly on the drug Daraprin in 2015, including by preventing “ competitors from getting the Daraprim samples they need. had to launch a generic product. ”
Shkreli and his company then covered the plan, according to the lawsuit, by publicly denying the attempt to prevent competitors from taking samples.
Without competition, Shkreli increased the price of the drug – which is used to treat toxoplasmosis and also given to HIV patients with compromised immune systems – from $ 17.50 to $ 750 in 2015.
“Defendants decided they could impose monopoly prices and make significant profits at the expense of the prosecutor and members of the Class, who were forced to pay high prices in violation of federal antitrust laws,” the indictment said.
The companies seek unspecified damages to be determined in a jury trial.
Shkreli made headlines after pushing up the price of the life-saving drug in 2015 – and was convicted of securities fraud in an unrelated case that stemmed from two hedge funds he managed.
He is currently serving a seven-year sentence after his 2017 conviction.
Shkreli returned to the headlines in 2020 after a former Bloomberg News reporter admitted she fell in love with the Pharma Bro while covering his trial in federal court in Brooklyn.
Christie Smythe, 38, told Elle Magazine that she “fell down the rabbit hole” in her relationship with Shkreli – and ended up divorcing her husband and moving out of their Brooklyn apartment.