Civil Plaintiff
Vyera Pharmaceuticals and Phoenixus Will Pay Up to $28 Million to Settle a BCBS Lawsuit
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross) today announced a settlement in its class action lawsuit against Vyera Pharmaceuticals; its parent company, Phoenixus AG; and two former executives, Martin Shkreli and Kevin Mulleady.
The complaint, which was filed by Blue Cross on behalf of other third-party payers across the country last year, alleges that Vyera intentionally monopolized the pharmaceutical market for Daraprim – a once-affordable, lifesaving drug for the treatment of toxoplasmosis – by illegally limiting generic competition. Under the direction of Shkreli and Mulleady, the per-pill price for Daraprim went from $17.50 to $750 – an increase of more than 4,000 percent.
