Jan. 14, 2022, 12:23 PM PST
By David K. Li / NBC News
Disgraced drug company executive Martin Shkreli, derided as the “Pharma Bro,” was banned from ever doing business again in the pharmaceutical business, a judge ordered on Friday.
Shkreli was also ordered to pay $64.6 million in profits he scored from hiking the price of the drug Daraprim, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote ruled in New York.
The court order is tied to a lawsuit, filed by the Federal Trade Commission and several states, including New York and California, that accused the imprisoned Shkreli of monopolistic behavior.
As CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals — later Vyera — Shkreli inflated the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill, after obtaining exclusive rights to the decades-old drug in 2015. Daraprim is needed by those suffering from a rare parasitic disease that strikes AIDS patients, cancer victims and pregnant women.