South San Francisco’s KaloBios Fires Pharma CEO Martin Shkreli

The increase propelled Shkreli to the media spotlight: Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pilloried him for gouging, and he was pulled into congressional drug pricing investigations.

Shkreli was “terminated as chief executive officer of the company and resigned from his position as a member of the board of directors” on December 17, the day of his arrest, KaloBios said in a securities filing.

Shkreli will be replaced on an interim basis by Ron Tilles, Turing Pharma’s chairman, at the privately held company, which has offices in NY and Zug in Switzerland. Last week he resigned as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, a startup drugmaker that caused a furor when it bought a half-century-old lifesaving drug, Daraprim, from another company and raised the price by about 5,000 percent overnight.

KaloBios also announced today that Tony Chase, who joined the board along with Shkreli back in November, has also resigned.

The price of KaloBios shares dropped dramatically shortly after his arrest – and trading has been halted ever since, according to Bloomberg Business. The allegations brought against him include using money from Retrophin, his first pharmaceutical company, to settle his debts related to his hedge fund and investors, and duping his investors in hedge funds.

A spokesman for Community Solutions said: “We serve people who depend on access to Aids meds every day, and as an organisation I don’t think we can keep this money”.

“I am confident I will prevail” against the charges, he tweeted Saturday.

Shkreli was arrested Thursday and charged with securities fraud and conspiracy.

Shkreli gained control over KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, which is a California biotechnology company. He has plead not guilty and was released on bail for $5 million.

If convicted, Shkreli stands to spend up to 20 years in prison. However, his Twitter account also had been hacked over the weekend, CNBC reported.

“At the same time, I am very excited about the opportunity to guide Turing Pharmaceuticals forward”, he added.

“‘Trying to find anything we could to stop him, ‘ was the attitude of the government”, Shkreli, who was surrounded by his lawyers, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview in New York Sunday.

“I was hacked-I now have control of this account”.