Team Imagine's Chairman raised a drug's price that combats infections in HIV paitents by 5000%

Bracken Thorn·9/22/2015, 11:07:53 PM·7 votes·1,166 views
Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

Martin "Cerebral" Shkreli is the chairman for Team Imagine. He's had some issues with his previous company.

> In 2011, Martin Shkreli...attracted some acclaim when he started his own biotech company, Retrophin, and began pursuing therapies for rare diseases. He served at the helm of Retrophin until last fall, when the company ousted him, later alleging that he improperly passed off legal settlements with MSMB investors as consulting agreements. Now Retrophin is taking the dispute with the controversial entrepreneur a step further. > > Retrophin filed a federal lawsuit against Shkreli on Monday in New York alleging that he created the biotech and took it public solely to provide stock to MSMB investors when the hedge fund became insolvent. [Forbes]

He also is the owner of Turing Pharmaceuticals which, in August, bought up the marketing rights for Daraprim, which combats infections in HIV patients. > Daraprim fights toxoplasmosis, the second most common food-borne disease, which can easily infect people whose immune systems have been weakened by AIDS, chemotherapy or even pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control. [Tech Dirt]

The company then raised the price by over 5,000%, so that one pill, which used to be around $14 is now $750. If you read through the Tech Dirt article, or the New York Times article, or any of these other articles, you'll see that this is 1) not a good thing and 2) Martin Shkerli does not seem like the type of individual that meets a number of the standards Riot holds its team or players to. I would urge you to write to Riot & Team Imagine to ask Martin Shkreli to change Turing Pharmaceuticals' price change and help those in need need of affordable healthcare.

TLDR: Guy owns Team Imagine. Guys owns drug company. Raises important drug price by $5000. Ask him not to.

14 Comments

TBakes9/23/2015, 6:07:01 AM4 votes

A company as large as Riot can absolutely choose who to do business with. It's just like if a rude guest comes to a restaurant and the owner kicks them out. Ain't nobody got time for that.

ModWulf Helhammer9/22/2015, 11:09:27 PM2 votes

How does Riot have any control over what the guy does with anything other then the eSports team?

Blade of Justic9/23/2015, 4:19:37 AM2 votes

As someone studying to enter into the medical field, pharmaceutical companies have always disgusted me. (If not at least rubbed me the wrong way)

That's why I've vowed to never work for one.

Only Play Darius9/23/2015, 8:10:06 AM1 votes

Gotta milk the poor and dying for every last dollar in their pocket am I right?

Business as usual I suppose. Which is why i'm studying engineering instead.

Anihaku9/24/2015, 6:16:36 PM1 votes

Who says we need to ban his team? Like you said, they probably have nothing to do with it. I just see this as another opportunity to cash in. He just wants to make money.....lets be real.

Having said that.......I would hope there is something in the contract that could get his team ownership revoked. He is not someone who should be representing LOL as a team owner or in any fashion IMO.

He can play all he wants.....just shouldn't be a representative of pro scene.