Former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli was terminated as CEO and Chairman of the Board for KaloBios Pharmaceuticals a month after he assumed the role and only days after he resigned from the top role at Turing.
The fallout following Shkreli’s arrest Thursday on suspicion of securities fraud continues to mount. Prosecutors charged Shkreli with illegally taking funds from Retrophin, his former biotechnology company, to pay off investors from his previous hedge fund MSMB Capital Management, calling the acts a Ponzi-like scheme. A day later, Shkreli resigned as Turing’s CEO and was immediately replaced by Interim CEO Ron Tilles.
An investor group led by Shkreli bought up 70% of KaloBios’ outstanding shares in November. The cash infusion was able to keep the company alive after it was on the brink of shuttering operations. Shortly after the share purchases became public, KaloBios appointed Shkreli to the position of CEO and elected him as Chairman of the Board.
Shares of KaloBios (KBIO) plummeted in pre-market trading on Thursday after news of Shkreli’s arrest, losing 53% before shares were halted at 6:48 a.m. ET. Nasdaq was asking the company for additional information and continued to list the company at its last price of $23.59 before the pre-market fall.
The company’s stock “will remain halted until KaloBios Pharmaceuticals has fully satisfied Nasdaq’s request for additional information,” the exchange said. As of Monday mid-morning, KaloBios shares were still not trading.
KaloBios has not said who would replace Shkreli as CEO.
Shkreli became front-page news after he raised the price of Turing’s Daraprim treatment by over 5,000% around August this year, and his comments continued to capture headlines. A day prior to his arrest, Shkreli made a series of controversial statements during an interview with HipHopDX, touching on topics from Taylor Swift to his $2 million Wu-Tang Clan album.