Martin Shkreli (left), former Chief Executive Officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals, leaving the hearing room after appearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform during a hearing titled Martin Shkreli (left)) and his attorney Ben Brafman. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

If former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli seeks to cure COVID-19, he can do so from prison, prosecutors argued Tuesday in their response to Shkreli's motion for release in the Eastern District of New York.

Shkreli, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for securities fraud in March 2018, filed for release from his low-security facility in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, on April 22. His lawyer Benjamin Brafman argued that Shkreli is a skilled medical researcher already devoted to studying a drug that could "bring relief and treatment to people suffering from COVID-19."

"I have always maintained that if he was left alone for several months Martin could cure cancer," Brafman said when asked Wednesday about the government's response. "Why not give him a chance to help find a cure for COVID-19 … what is the downside?"

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alixandra Smith argued that, if Shkreli has already been researching a cure and communicating with people in the pharmaceutical field while in prison, he can continue to do so.

"Shkreli has no formal scientific training and no experience working a laboratory setting, and he does not explain why he cannot continue to develop and discuss any ideas he may have about COVID-19 from prison, as he has," Smith wrote.

Probation officials agreed, according to Smith's filing, writing that his "belief that he can develop a cure for COVID-19, something that has so far eluded the best medical and scientific minds in the world working around the clock, is not only a practice in wild and completely unfounded speculation, but is indicative of the same kind of delusional self-aggrandizing behavior that underlies the defendant's conduct in the commission of the instant offense."

Because of Shkreli's history—he became widely known, and often scorned, as "Pharma Bro" after increasing the price of a drug used in HIV/AIDS treatment by more than 5,000%—Smith argued that, even if he did find a COVID-19 cure, he might use it to "enrich himself to the maximum extent possible, including by concealing his work or declining to provide such a cure to others unless he were paid an exorbitant sum."

Smith also rejected Shkreli's arguments for release on medical grounds, arguing that the 37-year-old is in "excellent physical health." His Pennsylvania prison had no confirmed cases of coronavirus as of midday Wednesday, according to the Bureau of Prisons, and Smith wrote that Shkreli's proposal to serve home confinement in New York City would not make sense while the city is an epicenter of the virus.

Brafman had argued that Shkreli's asthma and "severe allergies" put him at risk for COVID-19, but prosecutors found that Shkreli had not mentioned any asthma before, Smith wrote. Smith also disputed the idea that his allergies were "severe," writing that he took Claritin for seasonal allergies prior to sentencing but had not sought treatment in prison.

Shkreli's conduct in prison has not helped his argument for early release, either, Smith argued.

"Shkreli's multiple disciplinary infractions while incarcerated … demonstrate that Shkreli continues to believe that the rules do not apply to him," she wrote.

If Shkreli was allowed to leave prison for home confinement at his fiancee's New York City apartment, Smith argued that violations would be hard to detect and returning Shkreli to prison could put other inmates at additional risk for COVID-19.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto.

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