Overview
Turing Pharmaceuticals had four CEOs in three years. Its founder was arrested ten months after starting the company. Two executives later received pharmaceutical industry bans from the FTC. The company operated from February 2015 to September 2017, when it rebranded as Vyera Pharmaceuticals.
Martin Shkreli, Founder and CEO (February 2015 to December 2015)
Martin Shkreli founded Turing in February 2015 and led it for ten months. In August 2015, Turing bought the US marketing rights to Daraprim from Impax Laboratories for $55 million and raised the price from $13.50 to $750 per tablet. Federal agents arrested Shkreli on December 17, 2015. He was 32.
The charges did not involve Daraprim. Prosecutors said Shkreli defrauded investors in his earlier hedge fund, MSMB Capital Management, and his previous company, Retrophin. MSMB Capital collapsed in February 2011 after a failed short position on Orexigen Therapeutics. Retrophin's board fired Shkreli in September 2014 for misconduct and sued him for $65 million, alleging that he used company funds to repay MSMB investors.
The SEC had investigated Shkreli before Turing was founded. At 17, while interning at Cramer Berkowitz, he shorted shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. His first fund, Elea Capital Management, launched in 2006 and failed. He was born on March 17, 1983, in Brooklyn to Albanian immigrant parents, attended Hunter College High School, and graduated from Baruch College in 2004.
A jury convicted Shkreli on three of eight counts on August 4, 2017. He was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in March 2018 and released around September 2022. The FTC antitrust settlement required $64.6 million in disgorgement and imposed a lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry.
Ron Tilles, Board Chairman and Interim CEO (December 2015 to April 2017)
Ron Tilles was an original investor in Turing and served as board chairman. After Shkreli's arrest in December 2015, Tilles became interim CEO. He led the company through both congressional hearings in early 2016 and a 98% drop in Daraprim sales volume. He stayed in the role for about 16 months, until Dr. Eliseo Salinas replaced him in April 2017.
Dr. Eliseo Salinas, CEO (April 2017 to June 2017)
Salinas served as CEO for about two months before the board removed him. In June 2017, Shkreli used his position as the largest shareholder of parent company Phoenixus AG to place five close associates on the board. Salinas left the role. The company rebranded as Vyera Pharmaceuticals in September 2017, and Kevin Mulleady became CEO two months later.
Kevin Mulleady, CEO (November 2017 to March 2019)
Kevin Mulleady had co-founded both Retrophin and Vyera with Shkreli. He was one of the five Shkreli associates added to Vyera's board in June 2017. The company first appointed him to a newly created Executive Committee, then formally named him CEO in November 2017.
As CEO, Mulleady kept the distribution restrictions the FTC later challenged as anticompetitive. When the company learned that an intermediary had obtained five bottles of Daraprim for generic manufacturer Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Mulleady moved to stop the deal. The FTC said he reacted "frantic[ally]." Generic manufacturers need samples of the branded drug for the bioequivalence testing the FDA requires before it will approve a generic version.
The FTC settlement imposed a seven-year pharmaceutical industry ban on Mulleady.
Nancy Retzlaff, Chief Commercial Officer
Retzlaff served as Turing's chief commercial officer and publicly defended the Daraprim price increase. At the House Oversight Committee hearing on February 4, 2016, she told lawmakers that "no patient needing Daraprim will ever be denied access" and that 60% of net income was reinvested in research and development.
Chairman Jason Chaffetz challenged those claims with internal spending documents. He asked whether the company had spent money on fireworks and on an $800 cigar roller for a corporate yacht event. Retzlaff confirmed both expenditures.
Former General Counsel Howard Dorfman later testified that Retzlaff had privately raised concerns about the price increase during internal management committee meetings.
Howard Dorfman, Senior Vice President and General Counsel (December 2014 to August 2015)
Dorfman served as Turing's general counsel from December 2014 through August 2015. He testified under subpoena before the Senate Special Committee on Aging on March 17, 2016. His testimony contradicted the company's public statements about research spending, clinical plans, and internal consensus.
Dorfman told senators that he and other members of the management committee had "repeatedly raised business objections" to the pricing plan. He testified that the 5,455% price increase was "not justified by any such actual expenditure" on research, clinical trials, or educational programs. He said Turing had no formal study protocol for next-generation toxoplasmosis treatments and had not funded the educational materials it publicly cited to justify the price.
He also testified that Retzlaff had privately raised concerns about the price increase within the management committee while defending it publicly before Congress.
Leadership Timeline
| Period | Role | Name |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 2015 to Dec 2015 | Founder/CEO | Martin Shkreli |
| Dec 2015 to Apr 2017 | Interim CEO | Ron Tilles |
| Apr 2017 to Jun 2017 | CEO | Dr. Eliseo Salinas |
| Nov 2017 to Mar 2019 | CEO | Kevin Mulleady |
Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud. Mulleady and Shkreli received FTC pharmaceutical industry bans. Dorfman confirmed under oath that the company's public justifications for the price increase were false. Retzlaff privately opposed the pricing she defended before Congress. Vyera Pharmaceuticals filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2023.