Drug exec takes the Fifth on Capitol Hill, angers lawmakers

Martin Shkreli, the controversial former CEO known as “Pharma Bro”, was subpoenaed to testify on Capitol Hill Feb. 4., but repeatedly invoked his Fight Amendment right not to incriminate himself.

Shkreli is out on $5 million bail after being arrested in NY in December on securities-fraud charges unrelated to the price increase.

Shkreli became the center of national attention after hiking the price of a potentially lifesaving drug more than 5000% overnight while he was the top executive at Turing Pharmaceuticals.

Presentations by Turing executives, part of the trove of documents obtained by the panel., show that as early as last May, the company planned to turn Daraprim into a $200-million-a-year drug by dramatically increasing its price.

At one point, Chaffetz asked Shkreli if he thinks he did anything wrong.

“I would love to talk to Congress. I would berate them”. Gowdy then asked several questions about the Wu-Tang Clan album, goading Shkreli to answer questions that he believed the Fifth Amendment did not shield him from.

US Representative Elijah Cummings reprimanded Shkreli for appearing to laugh during the Maryland Democrat’s opening statement.

On Thursday, Shkreli appeared at a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

On social media, many people criticized Shkreli for smiling during the questioning. Unlike Shkreli, Turing’s chief commercial officer Nancy Retzlaff and Valeant interim CEO Howard Schiller not only attended the hearing, but they also answered questions.

While other drug companies have seem cooperative and even repentant for their role in taking advantage of defenseless Americans, Shkreli continues to display his uber-rich ego.

By Thursday morning, “Martin Shkreli” was the number-one search on Google.

Not to mention the lawmakers themselves, for whom Shkreli had some choice words to tweet later about his company’s drug-pricing practices. “All I ask is that you reflect on it. No, I don’t ask, I beg that you reflect on it”. “People are dying and they’re getting sicker and sicker”.

Outside the hearing room, Brafman held a brief press conference, in which he said it was “extraordinarily unfair” that Shkreli had been singled out, calling him a “hero”.

Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) questioned Retzlaff on money the company spent on fireworks, a yacht and cigar roller for a party, adding, “Don’t try to pretend and tell us that this $750 is justified, when you got a woman who’s got AIDS”.