Martin Shkreli, known for once mountaineering the worth of a life-saving drug greater than 4,000%, cannot return to the pharmaceutical industry after a federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld his lifetime ban.
A 3-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said a lower court judge acted properly in imposing the ban due to Shkreli’s antitrust violations.
The case had been brought by the Federal Trade Commission, joined by Latest York, California, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Shkreli, 40, became notorious and gained the sobriquet “Pharma Bro” when, as chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals in 2015, he raised the worth of the newly-acquired antiparasitic drug Daraprim overnight to $750 per tablet from $17.50.
He later served greater than 4 years in prison following his 2017 conviction for defrauding investors in two hedge funds and scheming to defraud investors in one other drugmaker.
In January 2022, US District Judge Denise Cote imposed Shkreli’s lifetime ban and ordered him to repay $64.6 million, citing his “particularly heartless and coercive” tactics in monopolizing Daraprim and keeping generic rivals off the market.
![Martin Shkreli in 2017](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/former-drug-company-executive-martin-75358097.jpg?w=1024)
Daraprim is used to treat toxoplasmosis, including in AIDS patients.
The appeals court rejected Shkreli’s arguments that Cote’s injunction was overbroad, and unconstitutionally chilled his free speech by stopping him even from using social media to debate the pharmaceutical industry.
“Given Shkreli’s pattern of past misconduct, the plain likelihood of its reoccurrence, and the life-threatening nature of its results, we’re persuaded that the district court’s determination as to the right scope of the injunction was well inside its discretion,” the court said.
![Activists protesting high drug prices in 2015.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/2015-protest-highlighting-pharmaceutical-drug-28243372_1de7b5.jpg?w=1024)
Shkreli’s lawyers didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
The FTC didn’t immediately reply to an analogous request.
Since his May 2022 release from prison, Shkreli has worked as a software developer and as a consultant for a law office.
The case is Federal Trade Commission et al v. Shkreli, 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 22-728.