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| Martin Shkreli, during one of his live streams |
With former Turing founder and CEO Martin Shkreli facing federal fraud and looting charges, the biotech's new helmsman is cutting costs and hunting for someone who'd like to try to salvage the biotech.
Shkreli associate Ron Tilles, who took charge at Turing after Shkreli was cuffed and perp-walked for the press last week, says he's cutting jobs at the biotech, though there's no immediate word of just how many people are facing the ax.
"Turing was founded to be innovative and entrepreneurial in bringing important new therapies to patient populations that are currently underserved," said interim CEO Tilles in a statement. "These staff changes put us in the best position to continue executing on our long-term plan."
Turing, of course, was made infamous by Shkreli's decision to buy the 62-year-old drug Daraprim and jack the price up more than 5000% as he claimed he would pursue a next-gen drug for toxoplasmosis. The move landed him in the middle of a viral mob for several months, until the FBI arrested him on allegations that Shkreli had taken money and stock from an earlier company he had founded--Retrophin ($RTRX)--to pay personal expenses and cover claims related to his defunct hedge fund.
In short order Shkreli was booted from Turing and KaloBios ($KBIO), a biotech which he took over after it veered toward bankruptcy. Shkreli has now been fired from three biotechs, including the two he founded.
Tilles, who was chairman at Turing after working with Shkreli for several years, took over and now faces added scrutiny from Bloomberg. The news service reports that Tilles faced his own fraud charges back in 2006 in a civil suit, which was later settled. And he earned a rebuke from a judge for dodging a deposition in a suit involving Shkreli. That suit was also later settled.
- here's the release