NEW YORK (Reuters) - Martin Shkreli, known for once hiking the price of a life-saving drug more than 4,000%, cannot return to the pharmaceutical industry after a federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld his lifetime ban.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said a lower court judge acted properly in imposing the ban and ordering Shkreli to repay $64.6 million because of his antitrust violations.
The case had been brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), joined by New 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 price of the newly-acquired antiparasitic drug Daraprim overnight to $750 per tablet from $17.50.
And if you don’t think this is a daily occurrence - you’re delusional.
He’s in trouble because he pissed off the rich. Pharma companies all over are doing the exact same thing he did with pricing and there are no consequences for them.
No, that’s not the only reason he’s in trouble. It’s true Big Pharma definitely does bullshit all the time but it’s reductive and ignorant to claim that’s the only reason he was punished.