TURING´s Ceo, Martin Shkrli, arrestado / Daraprim...“Schadenfreude*.”

Turing chief executive Martin Shkreli been arrested on a charge of securities fraud relating to a company he founded, Bloomberg reports. 

Prosecutors are examining whether the pharma executive illegally took stock during his time at his previous company Retrophin, which he founded in 2011, and used it to pay off personal business debts to hedge fund investors. Shkreli served as chief executive of Retrophin before being ousted from the company and sued by the board in August. 

The charges relate to Shkreli’s now-defunct hedge fund, MSMB Capital Management. He is alleged to have engineered transactions between MSMB investors and biotech firm Retrophin, following a trade with Merrill Lynch which cost the hedge fund more than $7 million. Retrophin said the 32-year-old Turing executive paid off as many as 10 investors through fake consulting arrangements and unauthorised appropriations of cash and stock. 

Earlier this year, Shkreli called the company's allegations “completely false, untrue at best and defamatory at worst.” He later said the $65 million Retrophin wants “would not dent me.” 

Albanian-born Shkreli has hit the headlines numerous times in 2015, beginning with his company's 5000% price-hike on the price of the anti-parasitic treatment Daraprim after Turing acquired the drug earlier this year. 


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Precio: El mayor de todos los incrementos...Martin Shkreli / Daraprim (Turing)

More recently, he was revealed as the $2 million buyer of the only available copy of a new Wu-Tang Clan album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. The hip-hop group’s founder, RZA, has since said they were not aware of Shkreli’s business dealings when they made the deal. 

 Last month, he became chief executive of another pharmaceutical start-up, taking a controlling 70% stake in KaloBios, now the owner of a treatment for another parasitic treatment, benznidazole. The company has since announced plans to substantially raise the price of this drug. While it currently costs around $100 for a month’s supply, KaloBios reportedly intends to increase this to a price structure reflective of those in place in the US for hepatitis C drugs, which can reach as much as $100,000 for a three-month supply. 

An estimated 300,000 people in the US have Chagas disease. The third most common parasitic disease worldwide is also known as the ‘kissing bug diease.’

“Schadenfreude.” 

Among the general public, the reaction on social media was gleeful. 

Peter LaMotte, a consultant who works with pharmaceutical and biotech companies at the Washington, D.C.-based public relations firm Levick, said he had never seen more people online use the word “schadenfreude.” (...)

Baum, the chief executive of the compounder that competes with Turing, said he would welcome a political focus on pricing policies.

“I don’t think this is a time to gloat, I don’t think this is a time to be happy,” he said. “It’s really a time for policymakers to buckle down and end these practices.”

The biggest thing pharma companies can do to distance themselves from Shkreli is to be transparent, said LaMotte, the public relations consultant.

“What executives and boards have to do is make sure that their actions cannot be associated in any way with his behavior,” LaMotte said. “They want to make sure that they are taking actions that show … they are ethical players in this industry and for their shareholders.” (Más)

Ver también:
Shkreli resigns post as Turing Pharma CEO, will be replaced by chairman Ron Tilles

(*) Schadenfreude: a feeling of enjoyment that comes from seeing or hearing about the troubles of other people