Case Details

Year Initiated/Committed

2019

Year Resolved

2022

Settlement Amount

$105 million

Court

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

Docket Number

1:20-cv-00706

Lead State

NY

Participating States

CA, IL, NC, NY, OH, PA, VA

Defendant(s)

Vyera Pharmaceuticals, LLC; Phoenixus AG; Martin Shkreli; Kevin Mulleady

Case Description

The FTC, New York and six other states filed suit against Vyera Pharmaceuticals, its parent company, Phoenixus and its former officers, Kevin Mulleady and Martin Shkreli, alleging anticompetivie conduct in connection with Daraprim, the only FDA approved drug for the treatment of the life-threatening parasitic disease toxoplasmosis.  The suit alleges that Vyera purchases the unpatented and widely available drug in 2015 and increased the price by more than 4,000 percent.  Because this price increase would likely encourage entry into the market by other firms, Vyera took specific actions to impede and delay entry by competitors and preserve its monopoly. Among other things, Vyera changed its distribution and prevented competitors from accessing a critical ingredient used to manufacture Daraprim. The lawsuit further contends that, as a result of Vyera’s anticompetitive conduct, generic entry continues to be delayed today — causing hospitals, physicians, and patients to pay exorbitant prices or otherwise be forced to make difficult treatment decisions without affordable access to the most effective treatment. The states and the FTC sought to enjoin Vyera’s conduct, as well as to obtain the return of unjust profits that would be distributed to the victims of the company’s illicit scheme. Additionally, they sought an order banning both Shkreli, who was already serving a seven-year sentence in federal prison for securities fraud, and his business partner Kevin Mulleady from the pharmaceutical industry for life. In December 2021, Vyera, Phoenixus and Mulleady settled with the plaintiffs, agreeing to a payment of $40 million and a seven-year ban from the pharmaceutical industry for Mulleady.  In January 2022, after a bench trial, the court found Shkreli liable on all counts and ordered him to pay $65 million, as well as banning him for life from the pharmaceutical industry.