Former drug company CEO Martin Shkreli came to Congress Thursday, refused to answer questions from Congress about his decision to jack up an anti-parasite drug, and then called members “imbeciles” over Twitter.
Shkreli, who boosted the price of an anti-parasite drug by 5,000 percent last year, attended a House Oversight Committee hearing Thursday on high drug prices. Shkreli, wearing a suit instead of his usual hoodie, took the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions.
“Do you think you did anything wrong,” asked committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, which got a muted response from Shkreli invoking his constitutional rights to avoid self-incrimination.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., also took a confrontational approach, saying Shkreli could answer questions that aren’t related to his federal indictment on multiple securities fraud charges.
He said Shkreli has a “great opportunity” to educate Congress on high drug prices, referring to a recent TV interview in which Shkreli said he would go to the hearing to berate and insult Congress.
“He didn’t have to be prodded to talk or tweet a whole lot or show us his life on that little webcam he’s got,” Gowdy said, noting the hours of web streaming Shkreli did.
Shkreli has previously said that he is innocent.
His attorney, Benjamin Brafman, tried to interject and say that Gowdy was wrong in his interpretation of the Fifth Amendment but he was not allowed by Chaffetz.
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who has spearheaded a years-long investigation into high prices, said Shkreli has a chance to change his life and become an advocate for fairer prescription drug prices.
“I know you are smiling, but I am very serious, sir,” Cummings said after Shkreli smirked at his comments. “You can go down in history as the poster boy for greedy drug company executives or you can change the system.”
Cummings said that instead of using money from the high prices for research and development, as Shkreli has consistently used as a defense, internal documents obtained by the committee showed a lot of money went to marketing and public realtions.
“Hard-working families should not be forced to pay increases of 10 percent, 100 percent or 1,000 percent just to subsidize the lavish lifestyle of corporate executives,” Cummings said.
After the hearing, Shkreli’s attorney Benjamin Brafman made a brief statement saying that it was a frustrating morning. He also chafed at Gowdy’s interpretation of the Fifth Amendment and its place in the hearing.
“The gentleman on the committee who discussed the Fifth Amendment with all due respect had no idea what he was talking about,” Brafman said. “For Mr. Shkreli to be ridiculed for it is just unfair and inappropriate.”
Brafman attributed Shkreli’s smiling throughout the hearing to “nervous energy” by an individual who wanted to explain what happened.
Brafman said Shkreli was a “brilliant scientist” who should be lauded as a hero. Shkreli resigned from his company after he was arrested in December for securities fraud on unrelated business dealings.
The company’s current chief financial officer, Nancy Retzlaff, acknowledged there have been “problems with patient access.” However, she said that was mainly during the first months after the drug was acquired in August last year.
