Following news today that Martin Shkreli has resigned as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, called on the drug maker’s interim CEO Ron Tilles to immediately reduce the cost of the drug, Daraprim, to its original price.
“We hope that Martin Shkreli’s departure will mark the end of Turing Pharmaceuticals’ reckless price hikes on life-saving medications,” said Olivia Alair Dalton, HRC’s Senior Vice President for Communications and Marketing. “Turing’s interim CEO Ron Tilles should immediately roll back the company’s unconscionable 5,000 percent price hike on Daraprim, a crucial treatment for many pregnant women and people living with HIV, and restore the drug to its original cost.”
Earlier this fall, at HRC’s urging, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman began investigating whether Turing Pharmaceuticals may have violated antitrust laws by limiting distribution of the drug. HRC also sent letters to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Chair of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), Chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce; and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Chair of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, seeking an investigation into the unconscionable action of Turing Pharmaceuticals.
HRC continues its call to get to the bottom of whether Turing and Shkreli violated antitrust laws by limiting distribution of a drug that is essential to the lives of medically vulnerable people, including those living with HIV and pregnant women.
The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. HRC envisions a world where LGBT people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.
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