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“Pharma Bro” Phone Calls Can Be Reviewed By FTC

By  |  August 23, 2020

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) attorneys can review convicted “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli’s prison phone records as part of the government’s antitrust case accusing the former pharmaceutical executive of illegally raising the price of a lifesaving drug, reported Bloomberg. 

Shkreli and his attorneys failed to prove how the FTC’s attempts to obtain Federal Bureau of Prisons phone communications violated the Federal Privacy Act and other laws, US District Judge Denise Cote for the Southern District of New York said Thursday.

Shkreli and Mulleady launched Vyera in 2014, then known as Turing Pharmaceuticals, and snagged US rights to Daraprim for US$55 million the following year. Overnight, the company raised Daraprim’s price from US$17.50 to US$750 per tablet. The move was a familiar one for Shkreli, whose company Retrophin acquired the rights to Thiola in 2014, then raised its price by 2,000%, according to the FTC complaint.

Full Content: Bloomberg

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