The court has not yet ruled on the motion, and Shkreli's response is not yet public. The central legal question is whether buying, selling and publicly commenting on drug stocks counts as "participating" in the pharmaceutical industry under the injunction. The filing does not resolve that question, and the court will decide it.
The lifetime ban dates to the Daraprim case. Shkreli, known as the "pharma bro," raised the price of the anti-parasitic drug Daraprim from $17.50 to $750 per tablet in 2015, was convicted of fraud in 2017, and was released in 2022. Later that year, the court ordered a lifetime industry ban and disgorgement of more than $64 million. The Second Circuit upheld the injunction in January 2024, and the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal in October 2024. This is not the first enforcement fight: in 2023 the FTC sought contempt sanctions for his failure to pay a $65 million fine and for not cooperating with an investigation into Druglike, a software company. Attorneys advising clients with pharma-sector exposure, or defendants under similar injunctions, should watch how Judge Cote defines "participating." If she reads the term to cover trading and public commentary, the precedent could reach well beyond this case, and the penalties sought here could include jail time.