Collect Records says it is impossible to continue having Martin Shkreli as investor over raising Daraprim price from $13.50 per tablet to $750

A rock music label has severed ties with the US hedge fund manager who became a global pariah for raising the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000%.

Collect Records said it was “upset on every level” to learn that Martin Shkreli, the boss of pharmaceutical company Turing who is a fan of punk and emo music and a supportive investor in the label, had acquired overnight notoriety for increasing the cost of Daraprim from $13.50 per tablet to $750 (£490).

Daraprim, which was bought by Turing in August, is the standard treatment for the blood infection toxoplasmosis and is a drug many patients have to take daily for a year or more. The owner of Collect Records, musician Geoff Rickly, told the music website Pitchfork that he was heartbroken by Shkreli’s actions.

Rickly, the singer in No Devotion, the group he formed with the former members of Welsh band Lostprophets, said: “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 there is some reason 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.

Shkreli, 32, has faced intense pressure, including criticism from presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, after he bought the US rights to the drug in August and then announced plans to raise the price.

Rickly said Collect had decided to “fully sever” its relationship with Shkreli. “When I decided to get into business with Martin, we took him on as a patron,” he said.

“He was completely silent and allowed us to do business as we pleased. His only ask was that we sign bands we believed could make great art given the right environment and not to focus on a profit, no matter how dire the bottom line.”

He added: “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.”

Shkreli has since announced he will lower the price of Daraprim, but has declined to say by how much. “We might have to curtail research for several lethal diseases that we are seeking treatments for. We might have to fire people,” he told the Guardian.

“We have to do a lot of calculation. When we make the new price, we are going to make it so that Turing is a break-even or only slightly profitable company,” he said.