Martin Shkreli could use some PR help.
It’s a pretty safe bet that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will not be getting a campaign contribution from Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli.
Hillary Clinton urged two different sets of U.S. regulators to work to bring lower-cost generic drugs to market as soon as possible as well as take steps to fight high prices in the pharmaceutical industry.
Clinton made separate requests to the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission to take action about what she called the “egregious actions of Turing Pharmaceuticals,” in a letter seen by Reuters.
Turing was criticized by many public and private figures including Clinton last month, following reports in the media that the ripoff artist firm run by Shkreli had jacked up the price of Daraprim, a 60-year-old drug to treat parasitic infections, from $13.50 to $750 a pill just weeks after acquiring the rights to the drug.
Hillary Clinton says government should take steps to mitigate Shkreli’s gouging price hike
Of note, Clinton pointed out in her letter to the FDA that Turing has to date not “meaningfully lowered the price” of Daraprim, and its decision to “artificially increase the price” was unfair to vulnerable patients who depended on the drug (commonly used by patients with compromised immune systems).
“The FDA should expedite any pending reviews, and encourage applications for review, of other generic alternatives to Daraprim,” Clinton explained in her letter.
The Democratic presidential candidate prefaced her letter to the FTC by admitting that it has only “limited authority to address price gouging when it is the result of unilateral action in a market with no competition,” but goes on to urge the commission to take a closer look regarding what it can do about price gouging in the industry and Turing in specific.
“I believe it would be a great service to the Congress and the Administration if the FTC would study and make recommendations on whether and how our laws might be amended to address this problem,” Clinton penned. The former Secretary of State also requested the FTC probe whether Turing’s decision to dramatically increase the price of Daraprim reaches the standard of anticompetitive behavior that it can regulate.
