Lawmakers anxious to hear from Shkreli, but he’s taking 5th

Industry watchers expected a show at Thursday’s congressional drug price hearing, and the event did not disappoint.

The hearing committee quickly got fed up with him, and booted Shkreli from the room within minutes.

Representative Trey Gowdy tried to coax Shkreli into a response, assuring him he wouldn’t be forced to answer incriminating questions. He later referred to committee members as “imbeciles” on Twitter, and while the House is justifiably unpopular, its cause here is a worthy one.

“I know you are smiling, but I am very serious, sir”, said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.).

Brafman said Shkreli would have liked to discuss drug pricing but had no choice, given the criminal charges against him.

Shkreli is also facing securities fraud charges involving Retrophin, another biotech company that he ran several years ago.

Four times the brash entrepreneur and former hedge fund manager – who has been unapologetic about the price hikes, intoned before the committee, “On the advice of counsel I invoke my Fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question”. Instead, Shkreli read a prepared statement from his legal council and invoked his Fifth Amendment right.

His appearance on Thursday angered members of Congress. Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders), U.S. senator from Vermont and Democratic presidential candidate, tweeted: “The American people are fed up with the blatant profiteering of pharmaceutical company CEOs like Martin Shkreli”.

“We want to try this case in the courtroom and not in the media”, Brafman said with a silent Shkreli at his side following a pretrial hearing in Brooklyn.

Rep. John Mica (R., Fla.) threatened to hold Shkreli in contempt for refusing to testify, but Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), who is the committee’s chairman, indicated he wouldn’t seek a contempt finding. Chaffetz asked. Shkreli gave the same answer again. Interim CEO Howard Schiller acknowledged at the hearing that the company had made mistakes but said “we’re listening and we’re changing”.

What do you think of his behavior?

Shkreli was issued a subpoena to appear before the Committee after coming under fire previous year following the purchase of the life-saving drug Daraprim then raised the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill.

“Hard to believe these imbeciles represent the people in our government”, read the tweet.