A piece of price gouging by a pharmaceutical company has had an unexpected knock-on effect on a US punk label, after the actions of Turing Pharmaceuticals caused Collect Records to end relations with one of its investors.  Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Turing, set up by former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli, had increased the price of a drug called Daraprim from $13.50 per tablet to $750 – a 5,000% increase. Turing had acquired the rights to the drug in August. It is used to treat toxoplasmosis, and for people with weakened immune systems, including Aids patients.  It transpires that Shkreli was also an investor in Collect Records, the label run by Geoff Rickly, the singer in No Devotion, the group he formed with the former members of Lostprophets. He operated as a silent partner, exercising no control. Rickly told Pitchfork: “I want to believe that Martin wants to do the right thing overall. I’ve seen the guy give away money to schools, charities, and frankly, our bands, who if anyone really knows the industry, is a hard sell. I am struggling to find how this is OK.” He added: “Though I want to believe that there is some reason that he would do this that is some remotely positive way, the only thing I can see is that it is totally and completely heartbreaking.”  Individual acts on the label – Nothing and Sick Feeling – had already said they would not have anything to do with Collect so long as Shkreli was involved.  Rickly duly issued a statement:  Today, Collect Records — with the support and encouragement of all of our artists — have agreed to fully sever our relationship with Martin Shkreli, effective immediately.  When I decided to get into business with Martin, we took him on as a patron. He was completely silent and allowed us to do business as we pleased. His only ask was that we sign bands that we believed could make great art given the right environment and not to focus on a profit, no matter how dire the bottom line.  Never in a million years did any of us expect to wake up to the news of the scandal that he is now involved in. It blindsided and upset us on every level. As such, we know it is impossible for us to continue having any ties with him. For my part, I’ve always strived to make Collect a place that was so liberal, encouraging, and artist-friendly that no one would ever walk away from us willingly, though to do so at any time would be very easy. To that end, I hope that our bands continue to believe in our guidance and passion. Any of them that have had an incurable crisis of confidence will be allowed to leave with nothing but the kind of encouragement that we’ve built our label on.  Shkreli has since announced he will lower the price of Daraprim. However, Forbes argues, this should not be taken as a victory. “Shkreli won,” wrote Matthew Herper. “He made a huge price increase, rode through the resulting controversy, and now has settled in to taking a less huge price increase, but probably still very big price increase. When I reached him this morning, he told me that doctors don’t stop prescribing drugs because of bad media coverage. They prescribe them to save their patients’ lives. Shkreli may have made himself an industry pariah and the most-hated man in America, but he claims not to care.”
Martin Shkreli had been a silent partner in Collect Records, but no longer, after bands said they would leave the label if he stayed involved