Price Gouging Pharma Ceo Takes Over Cancer Company

[beourbud]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/martin-shkreli-kalobios-ceo_564f55f0e4b0258edb313e7c

 

Martin Shkreli is seen in August 2011, when he was chief investment officer of MSMB Capital Management.

PAUL TAGGART/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

Martin Shkreli is seen in August 2011, when he was chief investment officer of MSMB Capital Management.

Martin Shkreli, the former hedge fund executive notorious for radically jacking up the price of a pill used by cancer and HIV patients, has taken over another pharmaceutical company.

 

Shkreli's startup, Turing Pharmaceuticals, acquired the drug Daraprim in August, and overnight the price went from $13.50 per tablet to $750, a 5,000 percent increase. Shkreli is now the chief executive officer and chairman of the board at KaloBios, a publicly traded company in the San Francisco Bay Area, the company announced on Thursday.

 

As part of that announcement, KaloBios said its mission is "to improve the lives of patients with innovative therapies" by developing breakthrough antibodies. The company is focused on developing a leukemia treatment, according to its website.

 

 

Last week, though, the company announced it was going to liquidate its assets and halt development of two drugs.

 

On Monday and Tuesday, a group of investors led by Shkreli swooped in and bought up 70 percent of the company's shares, paying as little as $0.61 per share, according to CNN. The stock closed at $10.40 on Thursday, and in Friday trading it fetched over $18.75. Shkreli's team ended up with a majority stake by committing $3 million of equity.

 

Perhaps because he's been the target of public scorn, Shkreli announced that he won't take a salary at KaloBios.

 

 

Shkreli confirmed to The Huffington Post on Friday that his compensation will be in the form of stock only.

 

"It's wrong when the top people at a company keep all of the money for themselves," Shkreli said. "If you're successful, you should let your employees get some of the money."

 

He argued that lab workers at his company would reap more of the profits than they would at other big rivals. He pointed to the pharmaceutical giant Merck, where CEO Kenneth Frazier's total compensation swelled to $25 million last year while the average worker earned about $103,000 annually, according to self-reported data from the salary-monitoring site Glassdoor. Shkreli said the discrepancy was unfair, since Frazier "doesn't know anything about science."

 

"Let the CEO get a lot of stock. They can make their millions that way," he said. "I lead by example."

 

Merck did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Shkreli also clarified a tweet from earlier in the day suggesting that KaloBios employees who'd been recently laid off could get their jobs back.

 

 

Shkreli told HuffPost he would welcome back 18 KaloBios employees recently laid off.

 

The new KaloBios CEO is likely to remain the object of public scrutiny for some time. Presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among others, said in September that the exorbitant increase to the cost of Daraprim amounted to "price-gouging."

 

Bowing to pressure, Shkreli said in September that Turing would lower the price of the drug, though he didn't specify when or what the new price would be. He confirmed to HuffPost on Friday that Daraprim is "still the same price," and wouldn't discuss details of the announced price reduction.

 

Patients who use the medicine -- whether to fight a parasitic infection or to compensate for a weakened immune system brought on by AIDS or cancer -- might not need to wait for him. A competitor popped up last month announcing the sale of a $1 alternative to Daraprim.

 

The controversy over the soaring price of the drug revealed that Shkreli's earlier career was under scrutiny too.

 

Financial reports by Turing to the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that Shkreli had been under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York. The federal attorneys were reviewing Shkreli's relationship with the hedge fund that he'd founded. The SEC report said Shkreli admitted he owed over $500,000 to MSMB Capital Management, his former hedge fund.

Edited November 20, 2015 by beourbud

[+Malamute]

Yay unfettered capitalism...

[Wild Bill]

Unfettered is good. He jacked up the price and a competitor undercut him by $749 dollars a pill. How many do you think he'll sell at his price? The market will always prevail if is allowed to do so. I'm only surprised the government didn't jump in to protect his price hike.

[Kingdiamond]

Unfettered is good. He jacked up the price and a competitor undercut him by $749 dollars a pill. How many do you think he'll sell at his price? The market will always prevail if is allowed to do so. I'm only surprised the government didn't jump in to protect his price hike.

Cmon Wild Bill do you think Republicans would allow the FDA  go after one of their cash cow industries ?

[Restorium2]

Shkreli is just a scammer. Pretending to be real. He has a ponzi scheme like Madoff and rattling the press was his bid/advertisement for new foolishly greedy investors as he was running out of money to pay off his ponzi. Greedy fools and their money have been parted by Shkreli. 

 

Here's the punchline;

 

 A competitor popped up last month announcing the sale of a $1 alternative to Daraprim.

[+Malamute]

Unfettered is good. He jacked up the price and a competitor undercut him by $749 dollars a pill. How many do you think he'll sell at his price? The market will always prevail if is allowed to do so. I'm only surprised the government didn't jump in to protect his price hike.

 

 

 

 

It happened to Daraprim but there are at least a hundred other drugs being abused the same way with no price savior in sight.

[zachw]

Unfettered is good. He jacked up the price and a competitor undercut him by $749 dollars a pill. How many do you think he'll sell at his price? The market will always prevail if is allowed to do so. I'm only surprised the government didn't jump in to protect his price hike.

 

Not necessarily so easy. In this case, the company tightly restricts access to the drugs. Companies making generics must show equivalent activity and thus they require sufficient amounts of the brand name for testing. on the drug can be generic.  Turning has made this all but impossible.

[t-pain]

i heard insulin prices are jumping 40% soon. stock up stock up...

 

could find no info, heres a post of someone who kept track of his insulin prices:

 

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/22/1453344/-The-ridiculous-price-increase-of-insulin

[t-pain]

heres a recent study , price of insulin 1991-2014

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26301721

[+Malamute]

 

 

 

‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli Weasels out of Promise to Roll Back Insane Cost Increase of Pills

Shkreli indicates no retreat from jacking up the price of a drug he bought by more than 5,000 percent.

 

 

The price-gouging “pharma bro” is backing out of his promise to lower the cost of Daraprim after jacking up its price by more than 5,000 percent.

 

Martin Shkreli, chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, became known as “the most hated man on the Internet” after raising the price of the drug, which is used to treat parasitic infections, from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill.

 

He backed down shortly after the controversy erupted and pledged to roll back the cost of the 62-year-old drug to its original price — but the company said earlier this month the price would be only modestly rolled back.

 

 

Turing announced Tuesday that the price for Daraprim would not change, after all — although the company offered to negotiate a discount of up to 50 percent with hospitals.

 

The company’s chief commercial officer, Nancy Retzlaff, pledged that no patient would ever be denied access to Daraprim but defended the continued price increase.

 

“Drug pricing is one of the most complex parts of the healthcare industry,” Retzlaff said in a statement. A drug’s list price is not the primary factor in determining patient affordability and access.”

 

But medical experts said the pills, even at $375 each, would be too costly for most patients.

“A 50 percent reduction after a 5,000 percent price increase still makes this an extremely expensive drug, and still prevents most hospitals from keeping it in stock,”said Joel Gallant, of Southwest CARE Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “Suffice it to say that this announcement doesn’t satisfy anyone.”

 

It’s not clear whether Turing will offer the hospital discount to insurers, although the company said it would provide free samples to some health-care providers and sell smaller bottles of the pills to make them more affordable.

 

Shkreli led a group of investors this week in buying up 70 percent of outstanding shares of the troubled biotech company KaloBios Pharmaceuticals — or, as a Dealbreaker headline announced: “Desperate pharmaceutical company hits rock bottom, names Martin Shkreli CEO.”

 

Turing is currently under investigation by lawmakers for alleged price-gouging, although Shkreli has said he won’t cooperate without a subpoena.

 

A “real f*cking doctor” shredded Shkreli’s arguments during an online question-and-answer session after the CEO was unable to explain why the drug’s price should be dramatically increased.

 

Daraprim, which is listed as an essential drug by the World Health Organization, isavailable in other countries for less than $1 a pill.

 

http://www.alternet.org/economy/pharma-bro-martin-shkreli-weasels-out-promise-roll-back-insane-cost-increase-pills

[+Malamute]

 

 

Heh...Oops double posted...

 

Go ahead and kill one.

[budpuffer]

yea,,this guy is a little pig...what would happen if everyone who sold him food jumped the price 5000 percent to him..how would he like it...lol...bp

[GregS]

The ACA prohibits government negotiation with pharma to control prices and formularies for drugs. That is just wrong. I understand it was an accommodation at the demands of pharma that was required to gain their necessary support for the bill. It is done in other countries that have socialized their health care, to include Canada, where US citizens often go to buy them because costs are much, much lower. At one point the Republicans in Congress tried to pass a law prohibiting citizens from hopping a bus to cross to Canada for that purpose. Fortunately it did not pass.

[beourbud]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/martin-shkreli-arrested-fraud_5672a3cbe4b0648fe3024db9

 

 

CEO Who Price Gouged HIV Drug Arrested

Martin Shkreli was arrested by the FBI in New York on securities fraud charges.

Reuters Nate Raymond

12/17/2015 07:06 am ET | Updated 1 hour ago

 

BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

NEW YORK, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Martin Shkreli, a lightning rod for growing outrage over soaring prescription drug prices, was arrested in New York by the FBI on Thursday on securities fraud charges involving his former hedge fund and a pharmaceutical company he previously headed.

Shkreli, who is now chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals and KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc, was charged in a federal indictment related to his time managing hedge fund MSMB Capital Management and heading biopharmaceutical company Retrophin Inc.

The indictment, filed in Brooklyn, New York, also charged Evan Greebel, a former partner at law firm Katten Muchin Rosenmann who was Retrophin's outside counsel.

Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Robert Capers is scheduled to hold a press conference with officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at noon EST (1700 GMT) to announce the charges, his office said.

Reuters witnessed Shkreli's arrest at the Murray Hill Tower Apartments in midtown Manhattan. Law enforcement including Federal Bureau of Investigation agents could be seen escorting Shkreli, who was wearing a hoodie, into a car.

FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser confirmed the arrests of Shkreli and Greebel.

Shares of KaloBios fell 53 percent at $11.03 in the premarket before trading in them was halted. Retrophin, which said in a statement that it had fully cooperated with the government investigations of Shkreli, was nearly unchanged in early trading.

Turing and KaloBios declined to comment. A lawyer for Shkreli did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Efforts to reach Greebel were not immediately successful, and a lawyer could not be immediately identified.

A privately held startup, Turing sparked controversy earlier this year after news reports that it had raised the price of Daraprim, a 62-year-old treatment for a dangerous parasitic infection, to $750 a tablet from $13.50 after acquiring it.

The charges predate Turing and relate to Shkreli's management of New York-based hedge fund MSMB Capital Management, whose closure he announced in 2012, and his time as CEO of Retrophin from 2012 to 2014.

The indictment said Shkreli made false representations to MSMB investors to draw in $3 million in investments.

After MSMB suffered devastating trading losses in 2011 and ceased trading, Shkreli for months sent fabricated updates to investors touting profits of as high as 40 percent since inception, the indictment said.

He also solicited $5 million from investors for another fund, MSMB Healthcare Management LP, while concealing his performance managing MSMB Capital and a prior fund and providing investors an inflated valuation of his then-private firm Retrophin, the indictment said.

To pay back the MSMB funds' investors, Shkreli and Greebel misappropriated $11 million in Retrophin assets through settlement agreements and sham consulting deals, according to the indictment.

The case mirrors a lawsuit Retrophin filed in August against Shkreli in federal court in Manhattan for $65 million, claiming he had used his control over Retrophin to enrich himself and pay off MSMB investors' claims.

Shkreli has denied the allegations.

The case is separate from the ongoing drug pricing controversy that had in recent weeks enveloped Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals.

At least two separate Congressional probes have been launched since September on the pricing issues of Daraprim, which had long been available as a generic drug used to treat toxoplasmosis in AIDS patients. Turing is under investigation by the New York state attorney general for antitrust concerns.

At a Senate hearing on drug pricing last week, a doctor who treats babies with life-threatening toxoplasmosis testified that a course of treatment with Daraprim went from about $1,200 to no less than $69,000.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Ted Kerr and Lisa Von Ahn)

Edited December 17, 2015 by beourbud

[Wild Bill]

Ooooooh! He's pretty! Martin will make lots of friends in jail!

 

[imiubu]

karma biotch.

[AmishRnot4ganja]

I hope they put him away for a good amount of time. These are the kind of people that the government should be using asset forfeiture against.