A judge denied a request by Martin Shkreli to delay paying nearly $25 million he owes as part of a judgment in a civil case for engaging in anticompetitive conduct to protect his drug company's profits.
Two months ago, a Manhattan federal judge banned Shkreli from working in the pharmaceuticals industry and ordered him to pay a total of $64.6 million he earned from hiking the price of the drug.
The entry of a competitor to the anti-parasitic medication was delayed for at least 18 months after the price boost, the judge said.
The Federal Trade Commission and seven states, including New York and California, were involved in the case.
Shkreli had a debt of $24.6 million.
It's not clear if Shkreli will have the money to pay the judgement. A lawyer for Shkreli didn't respond to the request for comment.
The civil case involving the drug Daraprim is unrelated to the securities fraud sentence that Shkreli is due to be released from in November.
On March 7, Shkreli asked the judge to delay the payment of the judgment pending the outcome of his appeal.
As security for the money he owes, Shkreli said he would put up the rest of his interest in Phoenixus AG, a Swiss company that is Vyera's parent.
Shkreli had no other significant assets to post as a bond against the judgment or to pay for it.
The shares of Phoenixus are being held by a receiver to satisfy a judgement against Shkreli.
The market value of Phoenixus' shares is not known, and it is not clear when that value will be determined, according to the ruling.
The sale of those shares may not be enough to satisfy the judgement in the other case.
The proposed bond is insufficient to ensure that the lawsuit will be successful.
The price of a medication used to treat people with HIV, pregnant women, and babies was raised by Shkreli.
In her original ruling against Shkreli, she wrote that he initiated a scheme to block the entry of generic drug competition so that he could reap the profits from his sales for as long as possible.
The judge wrote that Shkreli prevented generic drug companies from getting access to the quantity of Daraprim they needed to conduct testing because of his tight control of the distribution of the drug.
The two most important manufacturers of the active pharmaceutical ingredient were blocked off by Shkreli through exclusive supply agreements.
Shkreli was arrested in 2016 on charges of defrauding investors in two hedge funds he ran years before founding Turing Pharmaceuticals, as Vyera was formerly known, and with using their funds to found another drug company, Retrophin.
Retrophin was accused of being used to pay back investors' losses in his hedge funds.
He was found guilty in the Brooklyn federal court of several charges.
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