CEO who hiked drug price 5,000 percent arrested on fraud charges

Martin Shkreli, the 32-year-old CEO who hiked the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 percent, has been arrested on charges of securities fraud, according to multiple media reports.

The arrest is not related to drug costs, according to Bloomberg.

Shkreli was arrested early Thursday. The case relates to the company Retrophin Inc,, a biotech firm he launched.

In September, as CEO of the drug firm Turing, Shkreli hiked the price of the drug Daraprim to $750 from $13.50 per pill.

Earlier this month, Shkreli said he regretted not increasing the price of Daraprim by more than he already did, CBS News reported.

Asked by an audience member at a healthcare summit hosted by Forbes what he’d do differently if he could go back in time to before his highly criticized decision to raise the price of a 62-year-old drug, the Turing CEO replied: “I probably would have raised prices higher, is probably what I should have done. I could have raised it higher and made more profits for our shareholders. Which is my primary duty,” according to the CBS News report.

After the controversial price hike, Shkreli was called by some critics as “the most hated man in America.”

After the outcry, Shkreli said the company would reduce the $750-a-pill price. Last month, however, Turing reneged on its pledge. Instead, the company is reducing what it charges hospitals for Daraprim by as much as 50 percent. Most patients’ copayments will be capped at $10 or less a month. But insurance companies will be stuck with the bulk of the tab, potentially driving up future treatment and insurance costs.

Bloomberg reported that federal prosecutors charged Shkreli with “illegally taking stock from Retrophin Inc., a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings.”

The report noted that Shkreli was fired by the company and sued by the board.

Shkreli also ran an investment, or hedge, fund, MSMB Capital Management, which is defunct.