Martin Shkreli’s lifetime ban from pharma industry holds up on appeal

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 judge’s lifetime ban.

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.

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.

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).