Martin Shkreli Is Replaced As Turing Pharmaceutical’s CEO

Martin Shkreli, the medical entrepreneur widely criticized for ordering large drug price hikes, resigned Friday as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, one day after federal authorities charged him in an unrelated securities fraud scheme. He denied the charges before being freed on a $5 million bond.

Turing announced the change Friday, naming Ron Tilles, its current board chairman, as the interim chief executive officer.

Tilles also thanked Shkreli “for helping us build Turing Pharmaceuticals into the dynamic research-focused company it is today”, a reference to Shkreli’s after-the-fact claim that he needed to raise Daraprim’s price so much to fund research on other drugs.

According to the report federal prosecutors accused Shkreli of engaging in a complicated shell game after his defunct hedge fund, MSMB Capital Management, lost millions. In the meantime Shkreli is out of prison after posting $5 million bail.

It said they fraudulently induced investors to sink their money into two separate funds and misappropriated Retrophin’s assets to satisfy Shkreli’s personal and professional debts.

The charges were first reported by both Reuters and Bloomberg – which only yesterday was reporting on Shkreli’s skills at short selling.

Turing and Mr Shkreli sparked controversy earlier this year after it reportedly raised the price of Daraprim, a 62-year-old treatment for a unsafe parasitic infection, to $US750 a tablet from $US13.50.

In recent months, Shkreli has made controversial remarks in the press about raising drug prices and taunted detractors, including Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, on social media outlets.

By the time Shkreli’s tumultuous Thursday was over, he was already back on Twitter. The statement by Shkreli further read that the government has suggested him to be involved in a Ponzi scheme, but Ponzi victims do not make money.

Recently it emerged that he bought the only copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album titled “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin”, which the group sold on the condition that it not be released publicly. After his early-morning arrest, KaloBios shares fell 53 per cent before trading was halted.