Supreme Court rejects Martin Shkreli's penalty appeal in drug price hike case

PHOTO CAPTION: Former drug company executive Martin Shkreli arrives at U.S. District Court for the fifth day of jury deliberations in his securities fraud trial in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, U.S., August 4, 2017. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear former pharmaceutical company CEO Martin Shkreli's challenge to a $64.6 million financial penalty imposed by a judge after he raised a lifesaving drug's price by more than 4,000%.

The justices turned away Shkreli's appeal of a lower court's decision upholding the penalty, equal to the profits he and one of his former companies made by raising the price of the drug Daraprim in 2015. Shkreli, then in his early 30s, was given the nickname "Pharma Bro" in the media. His penalty had been imposed in 2022 by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan.



(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)