Shkreli’s Ban From Pharma Industry Holds Up on Appeal (1)

Martin Shkreli, the “Pharma Bro” who served almost seven years in prison for defrauding investors, will remain ineligible to work in the drug industry, after an appeals court upheld a lifetime ban imposed by judge.

The Manhattan-based federal appeals court on Tuesday cited “Shkreli’s pattern of past misconduct, the obvious likelihood of its recurrence, and the life-threatening nature of its results.” It upheld the ban and an order that he pay $64 million over a scheme to control the market for the drug Daraprim.

The court rejected arguments from Shkreli, 40, the former chief executive officer of Vyera Pharmaceuticals, who claimed the 2022 court order violated his constitutional rights, blocking him even from getting a job as a Walgreens cashier.

Martin Shkreli in 2017.

Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The three-judge panel noted that the ban allows Shkreli to accept limited types of employment with drug companies, subject to objections from the US Federal Trade Commission and several states, including New York and California, that sued Shkreli for violating antitrust law. If he finds their objections unreasonable, he can take his complaint to the judge, the court said.

“The monetary and injunctive awards imposed on Mr. Shkreli go well beyond established legal limits,” his lawyer, Kimo Peluso, said in a statement. Shkreli’s team is considering its options to appeal further.

Read More: Shkreli Says Pharma Ban Keeps Him From Even a Drugstore Job

Shkreli in 2015 acquired the rights to Daraprim from the only supplier of the drug and immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $17.50, earning him the unofficial title of the “most hated man in America.”

The US Probation Office in May said Shkreli was living with his sister in the New York City borough of Queens and making $2,500 a month consulting for a law firm.

The case is Federal Trade Commission v. Shkreli, 22-00728, 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals (Manhattan).

(Updates with comment from Shkreli lawyer in fifth paragraph.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Bob Van Voris in federal court in Manhattan at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Peter Jeffrey, Peter Blumberg

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