Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Bill McLoughlin

‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli who hiked price of life-saving drug released from prison early

Shrekli was released on Wednesday

(Picture: REUTERS)

Martin Shkreli, the entrepreneur who raised the price of a life-saving drug to widespread condemnation, has been released from prison early.

Shkreli, nicknamed ‘Pharma Bro’, was sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of two counts of securities fraud and one count of securities fraud conspiracy in 2018.

In a Facebook post confirming his release on Wednesday, he said: “Getting out of real prison is easier than getting out of Twitter prison.”

Shkreli will now remain in a halfway house until September, 14, 2022, the Bureau of Prisons said. He had been due to be released in September 2023.

Shkreli’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman confirmed his release, saying: “I am pleased to report that Martin Shkreli has been released from Allenwood prison and transferred to a BOP halfway house after completing all programs that allowed for his prison sentence to be shortened.”

A statement from the Federal Bureau of Prisons added: “We can confirm Martin Shkreli transferred on May 18, 2022, from the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Allenwood Low to community confinement overseen by the Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) New York Residential Reentry Management (RRM) Office.”

Shkreli had been the chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals. The company purchased Daraprim, a drug used to treat aids, malaria and cancer, in 2015 and increased the price from $13.50 (£10.94) per tablet to $750 (£607) per tablet.

He was sentenced in 2018 but was also barred for life from the pharmaceutical industry and fined $64.6million (£52.3million) by a US court earlier this year.

Shkreli has also been banned for life from running a public company.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.