Earlier this week news broke that Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company responsible for producing the the drug Daraprim, which helps with the treatment of AIDS and cancer, would be see its price raised from $13.50 to $750 per pill. The news of this 5,000 percent price increase drew ire from all corners of the internet, but over the past couple days more information about Turing’s founder and CEO Martin Shkreli has come to light.
Bullett Media first reported on Shkreli’s love of pop-punk and emo, which very quickly led to him being lampooned and turned into a meme by members of the respective communities. But that wasn’t all that that Bullett uncovered. It turns out that Shkreli was a silent partner in the label Collect Records, run by former Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly and Texas Is The Reason guitarist Norman Brannon. After this news broke, many of the bands on Collect began speaking out against Shkreli, and stating that if he continued to be involved with the label, the bands certainly wouldn’t be.
Yesterday, Noisey spoke with Rickly about Shkreli’s involvement and his reaction to the news. At the time, Rickly claimed he was still processing the news, but now he’s publicly stated that Collect will be severing ties with Shkreli effective immediately. The full statement can be read below, which explains how the label was blindsided by the news of Shkreli’s price hike of Daraprim, and how the decidedly anti-capitalist Rickly could no longer, in good conscience, do business with him. For his part, Shkreli and Turing have agreed to lower the price of Daraprim, though what that final price will be remains unknown.
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.
For all the kind words of encouragement that I’ve received over the past two days, I’m forever grateful.
From all here at Collect Records, thank you.
[via Pitchfork]