Former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli was released from prison Wednesday after serving most of his seven-year sentence for securities fraud. A federal judge banned Shkreli from the pharmaceutical industry for life in January following Shkreli’s use of illegal tactics to keep other Daraprim (pyrimethamine) drug manufacturers from the drug market.

Shkreli began his activities in the pharmaceutical industry in 2015 when he acquired Daraprim from Impax Laboratories. Overnight, Shkreli increased the price of the drug from $17.50 to $750 per tablet. Daraprim is used to treat toxoplasmosis, which threatens the lives of people with weakened immune systems, including individuals with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

A New York federal judge sentenced Shkreli to seven years in prison after the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and seven states brought a case of securities fraud against Shkreli in January, 2020.

Shkreli was released from Allenwood prison to a Federal Bureau of Prisons halfway house. According to Shkreli’s attorney Ben Brafman, Shkreli was released early from prison because he completed programs which allowed his sentence to be shortened. Shkreli was scheduled to be released in September, 2023.