Pharma exec Martin Shkreli pleads not guilty to securities fraud

Martin Shkreli, a pharmaceutical executive who gained notoriety for jacking up the price of a lifesaving medication, has pleaded not guilty to new charges in his unrelated securities fraud case.

Shkreli, 33, appeared Monday in federal court in New York City. He declined to speak to reporters as he left the courthouse.

A revised indictment filed last week alleged Shkreli and his former attorney Evan Greebel schemed to defraud potential investors of his former drug company Retrophin Inc., based in San Diego. Greebel also pleaded not guilty Monday.

Shkreli’s attorney has said the securities fraud prosecution is based on a “flawed theory.”

A trial is expected early next year.

Before his December arrest, Shkreli already was reviled because another drug company he ran, Switzerland-based Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of Daraprim by 5,000%. Daraprim is used to treat malaria as well as to treat toxoplasmosis, a disease that mainly strikes pregnant women, cancer patients and AIDS patients.

Shkreli, a relentlessly self-promoting figure who had called himself “the world’s most eligible bachelor” on Twitter, also made headlines last year by paying $2 million for an unreleased album by the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan.

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