Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Shkreli's Former Company To Pay $40M Over Alleged Drug Price Gouging
AP: 'Pharma Bro' Firm Reaches $40M Settlement In Gouging Case
A company once owned by “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli will pay up to $40 million to settle allegations that it jacked up the price of a life-saving medication by roughly 4,000% after obtaining exclusive rights to the drug, the Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday. The FTC said Vyera Pharmaceuticals LLC and its parent company, Phoenixus AG, agreed to settle allegations that it gouged buyers and monopolized sales of Daraprim, which is used to treat toxoplasmosis, an infection that can be deadly for people with HIV or other immune-system problems and can cause serious problems for children born to women infected while pregnant. (12/8)
Stat: Shkreli's Former Company Pays $40 Million For Blocking Drug Competition
The infamous saga began when Vyera Pharmaceuticals, previously known as Turing Pharmaceuticals, bought Daraprim, a drug taken by HIV patients, and raised the price by more than 4,000% — from $17.50 a tablet to to $750. The move galvanized criticism of the pharmaceutical industry at a moment when the cost of prescription drugs was becoming a pocketbook issue for many Americans. {Martin] Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager who seemed to sport a perpetual smirk, quickly became reviled for his smarmy responses to an outraged public. He later was sentenced to jail for unrelated securities fraud, but now faces a Dec. 14 trial for stifling competition because he refused to agree to the settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and six states. (Silverman, 12/7)
And in updates from the Theranos trial —
The New York Times: Elizabeth Holmes Caps Her Testimony With A Round Of Denials
For the six days that Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the failed blood-testing start-up Theranos, took the stand in her fraud trial, she blamed others, accused a former boyfriend of abusing and controlling her, and reframed her actions as trying to do good for her company. On Tuesday, Ms. Holmes capped her defense with flat denials. “I don’t think I did that,” she said in response to a question about whether she had minimized the findings of a devastating regulatory inspection at Theranos. She then blamed her company’s lawyers for “doing a lot of the talking in that meeting.” (Griffith, 12/7)
The Wall Street Journal: Elizabeth Holmes’s Testimony: Moments That Might Influence Jurors
Elizabeth Holmes’s surprise turn on the witness stand in her criminal-fraud trial has given jurors a close look at the control she held over her blood-testing startup Theranos Inc., and at the alleged torment she endured in her personal life at the same time. Her six days of testimony have included moments that helped and hurt her case, trial observers say. (Randazzo, 12/7)
