Pharma bad-boy Shkreli quits Turing after fraud charges

Turing Pharmaceuticals founder Martin Shkreli came under fire after buying the rights to 62-year-old drug Daraprim, which is used to treat conditions including AIDS-related toxoplasmosis, and jacking up the price to $750 a pill. Donald Trump called Shkreli “a spoiled brat”.

Shkreli eventually started his own pharmaceutical company, Turing Pharmaceuticals AG. A second defendant, lawyer Evan Greebel, of Scarsdale, New York, was charged with conspiracy. Students from Hunter College High are asking the school to return Shkreli’s $1 million donation.

Stronger-than-expected demand: “The Obama administration announced Friday that 6 million people have signed up for ObamaCare health coverage – calling the total a sign of a surge in growth in this year’s sign-up period”. Following his departure, the company authorized an independent investigation of Mr. Shkreli’s conduct, publicly disclosed its findings, and has fully cooperated with the government investigations into Mr. Shkreli.

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

Amid a deluge of criticism from patients and politicians, Shkreli pledged to lower Daraprim’s price, but later reneged and instead offered hospitals a 50 percent discount – still amounting to a 2,500 percent increase. Most patients’ copayments will be capped at $10 or less a month. “We strongly believe that the Board of Directors should find our offer to be fair and in the best interests of the Company’s stockholders”, Shkreli said in a letter sent to SeraCare’s board. The company took two heart drugs, Nitropress and Isuprel, and raised their prices by 212 per cent and 525 per cent, respectively.

Several classmates say that when they heard about Mr. Shkreli’s gift, they could not help but wonder whether it was meant as a sly act of one-upmanship.

He then bought the Wu-Tang Clan’s one-of-a-kind secret album encased in a hand-crafted bejewelled silver box, out-bidding billionaires across the globe.

Retrophin had previously sued Shkreli in federal court for $65 million, claiming he had used his control over Retrophin to pad his bank account and bring his hedge fund into the black. Shkreli insists that Turing spends far more on new drug development than its major rivals.

Nasdaq has placed KaloBios’ stock on a trading halt until the company provides more information.