Drug executive angers lawmakers at hearing
Shkreli invokes 5th 4 times, calls panel ‘imbeciles’ in tweet
WASHINGTON— Infuriating members of Congress, a smirking Martin Shkreli took the Fifth at a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday when asked about his jacking up of drug prices, then promptly went on Twitter and insulted his questioners as “imbeciles.”
The brash entrepreneur whohas been vilified as the new face of pharmaceutical-industry greed was summoned by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is investigating soaring prices for critical medicines.
Four times, he intoned: “On the advice of counsel, I invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege against selfincrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question.” Lawmakers erupted. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the committee, told Shkreli, 32, to wipe the smirk off his face.
“I call this money blood money … coming out of the pockets of hardworking Americans,” he said, as Shkreli sat through the lecture. “I know you are smiling, but I am very serious, sir. I truly believe you can become a force of tremendous good. All I ask is that you reflect on it. No, I don’t ask, I beg that you reflect on it.”
The former hedge fund manager with a frat-boy swagger has been reviled in recent months for buying Daraprim, the only approved drug for a rare and sometimes deadly parasitic infection, and unapologetically raising its price more than fiftyfold.
Shkreli is out on $5 million bail after being arrested in New York in December on securities fraud charges unrelated to the price increase.
Shkreli was dismissed less than an hour into the hearing, but not before Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, shouted downa request by Shkreli’s attorney to speak.
Lawmakers instead took turns denouncing his conduct and attitude.
Minutes after he left — and even before the hearing had ended — Shkreli thumbed his nose at the committee.
“Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government,” the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals tweeted.
Shkreli’s attorney Benjamin Brafman later said in his defense: “He meant no disrespect, but in truth, statements made by some of the members of the committee were wrong, unfair and difficult to listen to without responding.”
Shkreli calls himself “the world’s most eligible bachelor” and “the most successful Albanian to ever walk the face of this Earth.”
After Shkreli’s departure, Turing’s chief commercial officer and the interim CEO of Canada’s largest drugmaker, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, received a bipartisan lashing from lawmakers.
Chaffetz, an admitted “conservative guy” who accepts that companies need tomake profits, said hewas disgusted.
And Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., told them: “This is a scandal, an absolute abuse of power, an abuse of the pharmaceutical industry.”