The pharmaceutical executive reviled for price-gouging has resigned as head of the drugmaker Turing Pharmaceuticals, a day after being arrested on charges of securities fraud related to a company he previously ran.
Martin Shkreli, whose arrest delighted countless people appalled by his unapologetic stance after hiking the price of a life-saving drug by 5000 per cent, is being replaced on an interim basis by Ron Tilles, according to a statement issued on Friday by Turing, which is privately held.
Tilles has been chairman of Turing's board of directors since the company was founded late last year.
Turing said that Tilles will continue to hold the board chairman position as well.
He has worked at numerous private equity and venture capital firms in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries over the last two decades.
Shkreli, a 32-year-old former hedge fund manager, has become the "most hated man in America," according to some headline writers, for jacking up the price of Daraprim, the only approved drug for a life-saving parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis, from $US13.50 ($A18.97) to $US750 per pill.
He did so shortly after Turing acquired rights to sell the pill in the US, paying another company $US55 million for it.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors said that between 2009 and 2014, Shkreli lost some of his hedge fund investors' money through bad trades, then looted Retrophin, a pharmaceutical company where he was CEO, for $US11 million to pay back his disgruntled clients.
Shkreli pleaded not guilty to charges of securities fraud and conspiracy, which carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison if he's convicted.
He was released on $US5 million bail.
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