That was the triumphant message sent by then-Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli, the infamous "Pharma Bro" who jacked up the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 percent last year, when it became clear his firm could acquire the rights to the medicine. The email went to Turing's presumably pleased board of directors last May.
To anyone who's followed this story since The New York Times shined a spotlight on Turing and intensified the national debate about prescription drug pricing last fall, the Shkreli email and other documents made public by the Democrats on the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee Tuesday do little more than confirm the basic facts. Turing raised the price of Daraprim, which treats a deadly parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis that afflicts HIV/AIDS patients, because it could. The company reaped a windfall, followed by a massive backlash that forced out Shkreli without providing any relief to patients.
But this kind of drug pricing strategy isn't limited to one rogue executive or company. Though rarely quite so blatant, it's woven throughout the pharmaceutical industry.
Other documents released Tuesday reveal similar moves by Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The Valeant documents show that it purchased two heart medications, Isuprel and Nitropress, in early 2015 and subsequently hiked the prices by 525 percent and 212 percent, respectively. In just one year, the company racked up $351 million in profits from those two drugs alone.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), ranking Democrat on the House oversight committee, made public excerpts from some 250,000 pages of documents that Turing and Valeant had provided to the panel.
"I think it will be huge. We raised the price from $1,700 per bottle to $75,000. ... So 5,000 paying bottles at the new price is $375,000,000 -- almost all of it is profit and I think we will get 3 years of that or more. Should be a very handsome investment for all of us. Let's all cross our fingers that the estimates are accurate," Shkreli wrote in one email.
Shkreli, current Turing executives and the head of Valeant are scheduled to testify before the House committee Thursday as part of Congress' investigation into drug pricing. But the panel likely won't get much satisfaction from the former CEO, who appears under subpoena. Shkreli plans to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refuse to answer questions. That's not stopping him, however, from mouthing off to reporters and on Twitter, or from attempting to pick a fight with a prominent hip-hop artist.
Shkreli also faces criminal charges stemming from alleged securities fraud. The Huffington Post asked Shkreli's defense attorney, Benjamin Brafman of Brafman & Associates in New York, to comment on the House Democrats' report.
Braff replied by email only to confirm that he represented Shkreli and to say this about the criminal case (emphasis his): "THE CHARGES ARE VERY DEFENSIBLE, AND WE ARE CONFIDENT THAT HE WILL BE FULLY EXONERATED. IT IS CLEAR THAT MR. SHKRELI NEVER INTENDED TO VIOLATE THE LAW, NOR DID HE EVER INTEND TO DEFRAUD ANYONE."
Turing trades in medicines for uncommon illnesses. Valeant is similarly focused on "orphan drugs," which have a very small user base and are generally treatments for rare diseases and disorders, the House Democrats' report notes.
The documents suggest that Valeant's primary concern in raising prices was not the effect on patients' health, but the possibility of negative publicity. "Valeant's upcoming price increase on three drugs … has the potential to insert Valeant into the ongoing dialogue about orphan drugs, and therefore needs to be managed carefully," one document reads.
Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com/
Author: Jeffrey Young, Shane Ferro
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