Six More States Join FTC and NY Attorney General’s Case Against Vyera Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli, and Other Defendants
Defendants engaged in anticompetitive scheme to protect list- price increase of more than 4,000 percent for life-saving drug Daraprim
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April 14, 2020
TAGS: Health Care Prescription Drugs Pharmaceuticals Bureau of Competition Competition Merger
The Federal Trade Commission has filed an amended complaint in federal court against Vyera Pharmaceuticals, LLC, adding six new states as co-complainants.
The FTC filed the original complaint jointly with the New York State Office of the Attorney General on January 27, 2020, alleging an elaborate anticompetitive scheme by the defendants to preserve a monopoly for the life-saving drug, Daraprim. The amended complaint adds California, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Daraprim is the gold standard treatment for a rare, potentially fatal parasitic infection known as toxoplasmosis. The FTC and the states allege that when Vyera acquired Daraprim, the drug had been an affordable, life-saving treatment for more than 60 years. Vyera immediately raised the list price from $17.50 to $750 per tablet, which purportedly had a significant impact on access to care. To prevent generic competitors from lowering the price, the defendants crafted unlawful restrictive distribution agreements to keep competitors from buying the Daraprim samples they needed to conduct FDA- required tests, the complaint alleges. They also kept competitors from accessing a critical ingredient needed to make Daraprim, according to the complaint. Finally, they allegedly signed “data blocking” agreements preventing several distributors from selling Daraprim sales data to third-party data reporting companies.
The FTC’s complaint also names as defendants Martin Shkreli and Kevin Mulleady, who allegedly were directly responsible for orchestrating the anticompetitive scheme, as well as Phoenixus AG, Vyera’s parent company.
The amended complaint was filed on April 14, 2020, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Federal Trade Commission works to promote competition, and protect and educate consumers. You can learn more about how competition benefits consumers or file an antitrust complaint. Like the FTC on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, read our blogs, and subscribe to press releases for the latest FTC news and resources.
Contact Information
MEDIA CONTACT: Betsy Lordan Office of Public Affairs 202-326-3707
STAFF CONTACT: Markus H. Meier Bureau of Competition 202-326-3759