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

Another big drug approval came through on Friday afternoon as the FDA OK’d AbbVie’s upadacitinib — an oral JAK1 inhibitor that is hitting the rheumatoid arthritis market with a black box warning of serious malignancies, infections and thrombosis reflecting fears associated with the class.

It will be sold as Rinvoq — at a wholesale price of $59,000 a year — and will likely soon face competition from a drug that AbbVie once controlled, and spurned. Reuters reports that a 4-week supply of Humira, by comparison, is $5,174, adding up to about $67,000 a year.

ICER has some strong words for PTC, Sarepta and the FDA as the US drug price watchdog concludes that as currently priced, their respective new treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy are decidedly not cost-effective.

The final report — which cements the conclusions of a draft issued in May — incorporates the opinion of a panel of 17 experts ICER convened in a public meeting last month. It also based its analysis of Emflaza (deflazacort) and Exondys 51 (eteplirsen) on updated annual costs of $81,400 and over $1 million, respectively, after citing “incorrect” lower numbers in the initial calculations.

There’s nothing quite like a big patent win when it comes to burnishing your prospects in the pipeline. And for Amgen, which seems to have rescued Enbrel for a run to 2029, the cheering section on Wall Street is now fixed on AMG 510 and a key rival.

And it didn’t take much data to do it. 

There was the first snapshot of a handful of patients, with a 50% response rate. Then came word that Amgen researchers are also tracking responses in different cancers, at least one in colorectal cancer and appendiceal too. 

→ Bain Capital is deploying one of its top investors to Cerevel Therapeutics, steering a $350 million-plus neuro play carved out of Pfizer. Orly Mishan — a co-founder and principal of Bain’s life sciences unit — was involved in the partnership that birthed the biotech spinout in the first place. As Cerevel’s first chief business officer, she is tasked with corporate development, program management as well as technical operations. 

After a “hot” period of rapid growth between 2009 and 2012, and a relatively “cooler” period of slower growth from 2013 to 2015, China has once again become a top-of-mind priority for the CEOs of most large, multinational pharmaceutical companies.

At the International Pharma Forum, hosted in March in Beijing by the R&D Based Pharmaceutical Association Committee (RDPAC) and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), no fewer than seven CEOs of major multinational pharmaceutical firms participated, including GSK, Eli Lilly, LEO Pharma, Merck KGaA, Pfizer, Sanofi and UCB. A few days earlier, the CEOs of several other large multinationals attended the China Development Forum, an annual business forum hosted by the research arm of China’s State Council. It’s hard to imagine any other country, except the US, having such drawing power at CEO level.