Convicted felon Martin Shkreli ran an unmonitored drug trial in Cyprus in 2014, according to new court documents.
The drug trial​ ​–​ ​allegedly held without FDA oversight​ ​– was part of a Retrophin initiative to cure a fatal genetic disease in children called PKAN, the ​feds say in a new filing ahead of Shkreli’s sentencing Friday.
Shkreli and two others hold the patent to the drug, which his lawyers mentioned last week when they asked Brooklyn federal court judge Kiyo Matsumoto to be lenient at their client’s impending Friday sentencing for defrauding investors.
“With this patent, Retrophin was able to begin studies and clinical trials to drastically improve the lives of thousands of patients suffering from this terrible disease,” reads the defense memo.
The study was undertaken before Shkreli was pushed out of the company he’d founded by the board, and the results were later reported in Retrophin’s SEC filings–without mentioning the trial had taken place overseas.
Shkreli’s defense discussed PKAN, and the death of a friend’s child, during his trial last year to paint “The Most Hated Man in America” as a sympathetic character who was motivated to start Retrophin by a tragic loss.
While he was convicted of swindling hedge fund investors, the government alleged at trial he used the stolen investments to start Retrophin. Shkreli was acquitted of that charge.
Prosecutors Tuesday said the notorious braggart’s “insistence on taking shortcuts in order to get [the drug] to market drastically delayed the development of the drug while he was the CEO of Retrophin.”
“Ultimately, all steps toward the development for [RE-024] for FDA approval were taken after Shkreli’s departure from the company,” they wrote Tuesday in the same filing where they asked Matsumoto to lock Shkreli up for 15 years.
He faces more than 27 years in prison under the federal sentencing guidelines.
Defense attorney Benjamin Brafman declined to comment on the allegations.
Retrophin did not immediately return a message.