NY AG Investigating Turing Pharmaceuticals

The New York attorney general has started an antitrust inquiry into Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company that was hit with backlash after raising the price of a 62-year-old infection drug, the New York Times reports.

The attorney general's office is assessing whether or not Turing violated antitrust rules by restricting distribution of the drug, Daraprim, as a way to "thwart generic competition," the NYT writes, citing a letter sent by the attorney general's office to Turing on Monday.

"While competition might ordinarily be expected to deter such a massive price increase, it appears that Turing may have taken steps to prevent that competition from arising," the letter reads, which was obtained by the newspaper.

The letter is addressed to Martin Shkreli, the 32-year-old former hedge fund manager who currently runs Turing, and was signed by Eric J. Stock, the chief of the antitrust bureau. The letter instructs the company to contact the attorney general's office right away and says Turing must "retain all documents that are potentially relevant to this inquiry."

The Manhattan-based company acquired the rights to Daraprim in August and raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50. The sharp price increase was hit with backlash, sparking protests. The drug is used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be dangerous for people living with AIDS as well as babies whose mothers are infected during pregnancy.

The Human Rights Campaign lauded the attorney general's investigation.

"We are thrilled that Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is answering HRC's call to get to the bottom of whether Turing and CEO Martin 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 women who are pregnant," HRC president Chad Griffin said in a statement. "This is a promising first step to holding Shkreli accountable for greedy price gouging, as well as his failure to live up to a recent promise to roll back the egregious price hike.

"We will continue to call on Turing to restore fair pricing for Daraprim, and urge our nation's elected officials to tackle with vigor the deep problems in our nation's drug pricing system," he added.

Shkreli has argued Turing will use the money from the price hike to develop better drugs for toxoplasmosis and that the company was already in the process of providing better access to Daraprim, with lower out-of-pocket costs for patients, the NYT writes. He also said he would lower the drug's price but nothing has been changed.