House Hearing Probes The Mystery Of High Drug Prices That ‘Nobody Pays’

Members of the committee became frustrated with the 32-year-old as he sat with his hands folded and seemed to smirk.

Martin Shkreli, the former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO who notoriously jacked up the price of an antiparasitic drug used to treat infections in HIV patients, appeared on Capitol Hill on Thursday to field questions about his dubious business practices.

So this is a great opportunity if you want educate the members of Congress on drug pricing or what you call the fictitious case against you or we can even talk about the purchase of, is it Wu-Tang Clan? I don’t think he’s under indictment for the subject matter of this hearing so the Fifth amendment actually doesn’t apply to answers that are not reasonably calculated to subject you to incrimination.

Shkreli chose to use his Fifth Amendment rights and did not answer the lawmakers’ questions.

“He did not intend to show any disrespect, he was listening intently and some of what you saw was nervous energy”, said Shkreli’s attorney, Ben Brafman. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform called him to testify today as they investigate rising costs of medication. Shkreli only smirked as Rep. Cummings implored him to help “lower the price of these drugs”. Wearing a sports jacket and collared shirt, Shkreli responded to questions by continuing to laugh, twirling a pencil and yawning.

Valeant has increased the price of numerous old drugs, but the House committee has focused on two heart drugs, Isuprel and Nitropress.

Twitter sentiment was negative overall towards Shkreli, according to Zoomph, and some tweets indicated it was not much better toward members of Congress.

Eventually, Shkreli was excused, trailed by a media scrum.

The documents include presentations by Turing executives, which revealed that the company planned to turn Daraprim into a $200-million-a-year drug by dramatically increasing its price as early as last May.

The tweet was also noted at the hearing itself, with Cummings learning of it as Nancy Retzlaff, Turing’s chief commercial officer, was testifying. “Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government”, he wrote.

Republican Mr Chaffetz said after Mr Shkreli’s departure that he was disgusted.

A Maryland congressman is leading the charge against drug companies that hike up prices to rake in huge profits at the expense of people’s lives.

In December, Shkreli was arrested on federal securities fraud charges and freed on a $5 million bond. Documents from Valeant and Turing show they have made a practice of buying and then dramatically raising prices for low-cost drugs given to patients with life-threatening conditions including heart disease, Aids and cancer, according to excerpts released this week by the House panel.