WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Monday (Oct 7) rejected an appeal from Martin Shkreli, who was once dubbed “Pharma Bro” after jacking up the price of a lifesaving drug.
Shkreli appealed an order to return US$64.6 million in profits he and his former company reaped after monopolising the market for the medication and drastically increasing its price. His lawyers argued that the money went to his company rather than him personally.
Prosecutors, though, said the company had agreed in a settlement to pay US$40 million, and because Shkreli masterminded the scheme he should bear responsibility for repaying profits.
Shkreli was also ordered to forfeit the Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, the unreleased work that has been called the world’s rarest musical album. The multiplatinum hip-hop group put a single copy of the album up for auction in 2015, on the condition that it not be put to commercial use.
Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and cheating them out of millions of dollars in two failed hedge funds he operated.
Shkreli was CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals – later Vyera – when it raised the price of Daraprim from US$13.50 to US$750 per pill after obtaining exclusive rights to the decades-old drug in 2015. It treats a rare parasitic disease that strikes pregnant women, cancer patients and AIDS patients.
He defended the decision as capitalism at work, saying insurance and other programs ensured that people who need Daraprim would ultimately get it. But the move sparked outrage, from the medical community to Congress.
Shkreli was released from prison in 2022 after serving much of a seven-year sentence.
