Martin Shkreli is trying to use the coronavirus pandemic to get out of prison

Martin Shkreli, currently serving a seven-year sentence for securities fraud, has a pitch to authorities: Let me out of prison and I’ll help stop the novel coronavirus.

The disgraced biotech entrepreneur is asking for a “brief” three-month furlough from his federal penitentiary in Allenwood, Penn., to spend time researching potential treatments for Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

“As a successful two-time biopharma entrepreneur, having purchased multiple companies, invented multiple new drug candidates, filed numerous INDs and clinical trial applications, I am one of the few executives experienced in ALL aspects of drug development from molecule creation and hypothesis generation,” Shkreli wrote in a scientific paper posted online this week.

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