The Story:
Vyera Pharmaceuticals has settled an antitrust lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James over its anticompetitive practices in warding off generics in order to retain the monopoly profits from its toxoplasmosis medication, Daraprim. It will pay New York $40 million.
Significance:
Toxoplasmosis is a disease usually contracted by eating poorly cooked food. In healthy people, the symptoms are mild. In people with weak immune systems, they can be severe. Daraprim is the brand name of a drug often used to treat this disease, more formally known as pyrimethamine.
Turing Pharmaceuticals, the precursor of the company now known as Vyera, acquired the U.S. rights to Daraprim tablets in 2015. It jacked up the price from $13.50 per tablet to $750 per tablet, under former CEO Martin Shkreli.
Though that monopolistic pricing of Daraprim helped make Shkreli a reviled figure, it is in principle separate from the securities fraud that eventually sent Shkreli to prison.
In Pill Form:
Vyera has now settled its side of the antitrust civil lawsuit. But the lawsuit continues against its codefendant, Shkreli himself.
Meanwhile, pyrimethamine was approved as a generic in the United States in February 2020, sponsored by Cerovene Inc. It can now be obtained for around $183 a pill.
