“Your hope. Your strength. Your cure.” Healthcare has always been one of society’s most lucrative businesses, and ProtoPharm has based its entire financial concept on it. ProtoPharm produces whatever the medical sector requires, ranging from the most basic of medkits to miracle cures. Its biggest invention and most recognized achievement is the cryogenic chamber called ‘CryoVault™’, which allowed the construction of the gigantic settler starships for the ‘Great Trek’.

Almost as important is the ‘Vitae™’ multipurpose medication. Not even the ‘Spirula’ scandal has managed to overshadow this. Spirula was an anti-radiation drug, which led to massive genetic damage among the majority of its users, triggering a new wave of mutants in the years 2740-2747.

Headquarters

ProtoPharm Inc. headquarters are located in Via Rosso, sector two, close to Tangent Technologies’ headquarters. A long, bridge-like structure with multiple shops on it stretches from the edges of the sector to the entrance of the HQ. The interior of the company is just as impressive and clearly illustrates ProtoPharm‘s wealth and power.

Players choosing ProtoPharm as their Runner‘s faction will start out in an apartment in Via Rosso. The company‘s product line is mainly sold by the ‘Medicare’ and ‘Taylor‘s Biochem’ stores, located throughout the city.

Key Figures

Sandra Frasier, a 42-year-old attractive businesswoman, is the CEO of ProtoPharm. Although she is a tough and brilliant strategist, she also is an outstanding humanist. Rumors claim that her career began in the dark alleys of Pepper Park, and she supposedly owes her current position to excellent contacts with high-level businessmen and her ‘entertainment skills’. Due to her humane nature, this rumor is heard only seldom.

19-year-old Luke Conrad, ProtoPharm’s system admin, is a true miracle at the keyboard. Unfortunately, he suffers from a light mental disorder that makes constant medication necessary. He can consider himself lucky to work for a company that can supply an infinite amount of drugs against his disease.

History

ProtoPharm was launched in 2646, when several medical and chemical companies merged. Jakob Finster, a young company lawyer, was chosen as its manager. ProtoPharm committed itself to cooling research and finished its CryoChamber project in 2652, when the chambers were used for the passengers of the first spaceship, the Avenger.

The company then continued to develop the CryoVault™. By sleeping in this cooling chamber, everyone had the possibility of practically extending their life infinitely. Finster decided to use the CryoVault™ in 2664, and the company’s management was transferred to Alain Finster, his nephew. Under Alain’s guidance, ProtoPharm’s main focus shifted to broadband drug and medical research. The Vitae™ broadband drug owes its existence to this development and was launched in 2678.

Alain disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 2701, and the Vitae™ formula was stolen shortly thereafter. Only a little time later, the Brotherhood of Crahn started selling the extremely lucrative drug, ending ProtoPharm’s monopolistic position.

Jan Pixner, Alain’s successor, allied his company with Lioon Reza and supported his attempts to topple the Psi Monk government. In 2739, Gene Manchia introduced the ‘Spirula’ anti-radiation drug to the market, and in the beginning, it seemed as if it would become just as successful as its predecessor. But Spirula’s rise was only short-lived, and an enormous scandal ensued when scientists proved that Spirula caused unpredictable damage to its users’ genes.

In 2741, Sandra Frasier was announced as ProtoPharm’s CEO. At the same time, Lioon Reza declared the Spirula mutants as non-human and their death as an act of mercy. This caused most mutants to flee into the Outzone or the Wastelands. ProtoPharm successfully did its best to keep out of the public’s attention in the following years, and in 2750, a cooperation contract was signed between ProtoPharm and BioTech Inc.

Rumors

Many strange stories evolve around the fascinating personality of Sandra Frasier. It’s rumored that more is behind BioTech’s and ProtoPharm’s recent alliance than one would expect, and that Seymour Jordan’s seemingly philanthropic motives are not entirely inspired by business alone. Numerous rumors about Ms. Frasier‘s career development hint in the same direction. Some may be true, while others portray Sandra Frasier as a cold-blooded and calculating woman, which, in view of her obvious humane nature, doesn‘t really make a lot of sense…

Further rumors claim that ProtoPharm’s founder, Jakob Finster, was incurably ill and therefore decided to use one of his cooling chambers. He supposedly wakes up every 20 years in order to see whether a cure for his disease has been developed in the meantime. But even if it has, Sandra Frasier wouldn’t have any interest in saving the man, according to hearsay.

Friend and foe

The company has close relations to BioTech Inc., as well as to most of the other corporations of Neocron. The ice is finally starting to melt in ProtoPharm’s complicated relationship to NExT Inc. It had dwindled after Sandra Frasier attempted a hostile takeover of NExT before the ‘Great Trek’. ProtoPharm also maintains good relations with the CityAdmin and the CityMercs.

In her blind hatred against drugs and everything belonging to them, Madame Veronique has already accused ProtoPharm several times of doing illegal business with the Black Dragon clan. Naturally, these brazen lies were proven wrong by ProtoPharm’s spokespersons, and the Tsunami Syndicate had to pay an anonymous sum as compensation.