Fed­er­al judge Kiyo Mat­sumo­to in a Brook­lyn court to­day sen­tenced Mar­tin Shkre­li to 7 years on three felony fraud con­vic­tions, end­ing a lengthy pub­lic spec­ta­cle in which the biotech ex­ec man­aged to re­peat­ed­ly en­rage the pub­lic over his drug pric­ing schemes. He was con­vict­ed, though, on charges re­lat­ed to ly­ing to in­vestors in his hedge funds.

Shkre­li’s at­tor­ney, Ben Braf­man, had waged a skill­ful cam­paign to guard the de­fi­ant young ex­ec, who, af­ter mak­ing bail, wound up back in prison await­ing sen­tenc­ing af­ter the judge was an­gered by Shkre­li’s bizarre of­fer of a $5,000 boun­ty on Hillary Clin­ton’s hair. The judge al­lowed 6 months cred­it for time served, leav­ing a long stretch for Shkre­li be­hind bars.

Min­utes be­fore the sen­tenc­ing, Braf­man ar­gued the gov­ern­ment’s re­quest for 15 years was in­ap­pro­pri­ate, call­ing it “dra­con­ian.” Braf­man said Shkre­li “may be bril­liant in cer­tain mat­ters,” but “lacks cer­tain so­cial skills.” He plead­ed with the judge not to rule harsh­ly on Shkre­li “just for be­ing Mar­tin Shkre­li.”

Mat­sumo­to as­sured Braf­man that Shkre­li’s so­cial me­dia pres­ence — and the mat­ter of drug pric­ing — were not is­sues for her.

“He be­haved re­spect­ful­ly in court,” she said.

In his wrap-up, Braf­man last­ly pled that the judge re­con­sid­er the lev­el of se­cu­ri­ty Shkre­li should be jailed in.

Def: When you sen­tence Mr. Shkre­li, it’s re­al prison. De­spite fact he some­times says stu­pid things. At end of day, he doesn’t be­long there, and doesn’t be­long there for sig­nif­i­cant amt of time. #PharmaBro #Shkre­li @wcbs880

— Ethan Harp (@EthanHarp­News) March 9, 2018

When the gov­ern­ment was up to lay its case against Shkre­li, they did it suc­cinct­ly.

Govt: Shkre­li is a con­vict­ed crim­i­nal, we didn’t say it was be­cause he was a lit­tle off or strange. He was con­vict­ed of 3 of 4 fraud schemes. #PharmaBro #Shkre­li @wcbs880

— Ethan Harp (@EthanHarp­News) March 9, 2018

In short, they called Shkre­li’s de­fense ab­surd, es­pe­cial­ly the part about spar­ing him for sci­ence’s sake.

Govt: This talk of him hav­ing po­ten­tial. A sig­nif­i­cant term in prison won’t de­ny the world of cures to child­hood dis­eases. #PharmaBro #Shkre­li @wcbs880

— Ethan Harp (@EthanHarp­News) March 9, 2018

Shkre­li him­self made his last state­ments, call­ing his con­duct both neg­li­gent and stu­pid.

#Shkre­li: “I still have work to do… I’m here bc of my gross, stu­pid neg­li­gent mis­takes I made at MSMB. This woul dbe a good time to apol­o­gize to all the in­vestors of MSMB.” His voice break­ing: “I’m ter­ri­bly sor­ry I lost your trust. You de­serve bet­ter.”

— Meg Tir­rell (@megtir­rell) March 9, 2018

#Shkre­li: There was no gov­ern­ment con­spir­a­cy to take down Mar­tin Shkre­li. I took down Mar­tin Shkre­li.

— Meg Tir­rell (@megtir­rell) March 9, 2018

Dur­ing the sen­tenc­ing, Mat­sumo­to said she as­sumed Shkre­li would ap­peal any sen­tence he was giv­en, and Braf­man con­firmed lat­er that he would ap­peal.

Im­age: Court­room sketch of Mar­tin Shkre­li and his lawyer Ben Braf­man. AP IM­AGES

Biotech is one of the smartest, best educated industries on the planet. PhDs abound. We’ve had a long enough track record to see a new generation of savvy, experienced execs coming together to run startups.

And in these times, they are being tested as never before.

Biotech is going through quite a rough patch right now. For 2 years, practically anyone with a decent resume and some half-baked ideas on biotech could start a company and get it funded. The pandemic made it easy in many ways to pull off an IPO, with traditional road shows shut down in exchange for a series of quick Zoom meetings. Generalist investors flocked as the numbers raised soared into the stratosphere.

It looks like Warren Buffett is sticking to ice cream and railroads for the moment.

The billionaire CEO of Berkshire Hathaway backed out of two major holdings in the pharma industry, Forexlive first reported, including a $410 million investment in AbbVie and a $324.4 million stake in Bristol Myers Squibb.

The move comes after Berkshire abandoned its Teva shares just last quarter, Bloomberg reported.

Nearly a year ago, more than 200 workers at Novartis’ Grimsby, UK, facility were able to hang on to their jobs after the pharma closed a Switzerland site as a part of its workforce restructuring plan. Now, it looks like those employees’ time is up, as the site has been sold, Grimsby Telegraph reported today.

The manufacturing site has been sold to Humber Industrials, a subsidiary of International Process Plants. None of the current staff members will be working with the new owners, however.

Usually reserved for making decisions on drug applications or enforcing what Congress stipulates, the FDA is now dipping its toe into the wild world of congressional politics as it attempts to fix a major court decision that could have a chilling effect on rare disease R&D.

The case in question from last October saw a US appeals court overturn a prior FDA court win, saying that the agency never should’ve approved a rare disease drug because a previously approved but more expensive drug with the same active ingredient has orphan drug exclusivity barring such an approval.

When bluebird bio’s gene therapy to treat beta thalassemia won European approval in 2019, the nearly $2 million per patient price tag for the potential cure seemed like a surmountable hurdle.

Fast forward two years later, and bluebird has withdrawn Zynteglo, the beta thal drug, along with the rest of its gene therapy portfolio from Europe, which the company said is generally unwilling to pay a fair price for the treatment.