Ex-pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli arrives at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in 2017. Photo: Kevin Hagen/Getty Images
Former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli was ordered to return $64.6 million made in profit from ballooning the price of the life-saving drug Daraprim and is barred from the pharmaceutical industry, a federal judge ruled Friday.
Driving the news:. Shkreli, often known as "Pharma Bro," is serving a seven-year prison sentence on federal charges of wire and securities fraud.
- Shkreli gained infamy in 2015 when as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals (now Vyera Pharmaceuticals) he raised the prices of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 a tablet. The drug is used to treat a rare parasitic disease that affects pregnant people, cancer patients and AIDS patients
The big picture: Friday's ruling comes several weeks after a seven-day bench trial in December, AP reports. The Federal Trade Commission along with seven states brought the case against Shkreli in 2020.
- At the time, Shkreli defended his decision to raise the price and said that "insurance and other programs ensure that people who need Daraprim would ultimately get it," AP notes.
- “Shkreli does not dispute that it was his intention to impede generic pharmaceutical companies from launching competitive products that would threaten the price of Daraprim,” U.S. District Judge Denise Cote wrote. “The plaintiffs have shown that the restraints Vyera implemented succeeded in doing just that.”