Pharmalittle: Sanofi settles EU probe, FTC acts against Shkreli

CVS agreed to pay $315 million to settle a Justice Department case over opioid prescriptions

Martin Shkreli has resurfaced, but the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is expressing grave concerns. The agency, along with seven states, has petitioned a U.S. court to find Shkreli in contempt for "flagrantly and repeatedly" violating a court order that prohibits him from working in the pharmaceutical sector. Shkreli, infamously dubbed "pharma bro" for his audacious defense of a 5,000% price increase on a drug, was sentenced to seven years in prison for defrauding investors in 2018. Following his release in 2022, a court imposed a ban on him from any future employment in the industry, citing his illegal attempts to stave off generic competition for the drug. Since then, he has become an active trader in pharmaceutical stocks, sharing his insights through posts and livestreams on platforms such as X and others.

In another development, European Union antitrust regulators have accepted concessions from Sanofi, allowing the company to settle an inquiry into a purportedly "misleading" marketing campaign that maligned the only competing flu vaccine suggested for high-risk patients. By settling, Sanofi has evaded potential fines. The European Commission indicated that Sanofi misrepresented the Fluad vaccine, produced by CSL Seqirus, as inferior to its own Efluelda vaccine in materials directed primarily at healthcare professionals in Germany and France. The European Commission noted that Sanofi maintains a dominant market position in both nations.