Shkreli: Mallinckrodt Is A Terrible Short

A day after Imprimis Pharmaceuticals Inc IMMY announced plans to develop a lower-priced alternative to Mallinckrodt PLC MNK’s HP Acthar Gel, Martin Shkreli told Benzinga the proliferating market shorts against Mallinckrodt are “much ado about nothing.”

“Shorts have been talking about Acthar problems for five years — just keeps growing,” Shkreli said. “Docs swear it's a reasonable last-line treatment, and I've heard many testimonials about it rescuing patients.”

Mallinckrodt shares had dropped as much as 5.36 percent Wednesday and were trading down 4.1 percent at time of publication.

"It's apparent that efforts by policymakers to lower drug costs have been in vain," Imprimis said Tuesday. "It is only when there is competition or threats of competition that drug makers make a concerted effort to cut their prices."

Mallinckrodt has been raked in recent months, most notably by short-seller Citron Reaserch.

See Also: Imprimis Challenges Mallinckrodt's Acthar

Back in January, Shkreli told Benzinga, “Questcor [Mallinckrodt subsidiary] stopped me from competing with their very high-priced drug...and it appears they will be punished for what I believed was an illegal maneuver."

The Federal Trade Commission settled charges against UK-based Mallinckrodt for allegedly creating a monopoly to raise the price of a drug used to treat infant spasms to $34,000 a vial.