LSIPR 50 2016: Martin Shkreli and Jim Tananbaum
Name: Martin Shkreli
Organisation: Formerly of Turing Pharmaceuticals
Position: Former chief executive
Martin Shkreli, formerly chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, shot to notoriety last year when his company took over the manufacturing rights to the drug Daraprim (pyrimethamine), used to treat diseases including malaria.
Turing promptly raised the drug’s price by astronomic proportions, from $13.50 to $750 per dose, and Shkreli became public enemy number one.
The drug is on the World Health Organization’s essential medicines list because it treats toxoplasmosis, an infection that is dangerous to pregnant women, people with compromised immune systems, and the elderly.
"he claimed that major drug companies often raise the price of drugs to little or no reaction from the media."
Shkreli became a household name across the global media and was dubbed the “bad boy of pharma” and “most hated man in America”.
He claims that he is misunderstood. In an interview with Vice magazine he claimed that major drug companies often raise the price of drugs to little or no reaction from the media.
He added that the pill is sold for “a dollar” to the government but that multinationals “like Walmart” should pay full price. He has also claimed that people who cannot afford the drug can contact him and get it for free.
Name: Jim Tananbaum
Organisation: Foresite Capital
Position: Chief executive and managing director
Over the last 20 years, Jim Tananbaum has led investments in 21 successful companies, producing several multibillion outcomes.
In 2011, he founded San Francisco-based venture capital firm Foresite Capital with the specific aim of growing late-stage products. Foresite invests in companies with products and services in the biotechnology, genomics, diagnostics, healthcare services and medical devices sectors.
"He is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organisation, a network of young chief executives, and an officer at the Golden Gate Chapter."
A graduate of Harvard Medical School, earlier in his career Tananbaum served as senior product manager at Merck from 1991 to 1993.
He was formerly a partner at Sierra Ventures and helped establish its healthcare investment practice and has also led investments in companies including Amira Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Bristol Myers-Squibb in 2011, Amerigroup Healtheon, and Jazz Pharmaceuticals.
While he was at Harvard he founded two start-up pharmaceutical companies which have both since gone public.
One of them, GelTex Pharmaceuticals, was bought by Genzyme for $1.6 billion in 2000. The other, Theravanace Biopharma, was founded in 1997 and has previously partnered with pharma company GSK during a 2015 study into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
He has served on the advisory boards of the Harvard-MIT Program of Health Sciences and Technology and Yale School of Engineering.
He is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organisation, a network of young chief executives, and an officer at the Golden Gate Chapter—a San Francisco-based organisation that provides support, education, and career enhancement opportunities for professionals in the fundraising business.
