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‘Pharma Bro’ Shkreli invokes the Fifth before Congress
Former drug exec Martin Shkreli, who has derided Congress on social media, faced members of that legislative body during a hearing on pharmaceutical pricing.
By
Halimah Abdullah
Former drug executive Martin Shkreli, who called members of Congress “imbeciles” on social media, faced members of that legislative body on Thursday morning during a hearing on pharmaceutical pricing.
The normally talkative Shkreli invoked the Fifth Amendment when he appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to discuss his actions in raising the price of Daraprim by more than 5,500 percent.
Daraprim, which went from costing $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill, is used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic condition that can occur in pregnant women and people with the HIV virus.
Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz asked Shkreli what he would say to a pregnant woman who needed his company’s medication but couldn’t afford it. Shkreli invoked the Fifth.
He smirked, rolled his eyes and looked away when Ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland tried to appeal to his sense of morality and reflect on his actions.
When Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, asked Shkreli how to pronounce his name, the former drug executive answered. Gowdy immediately responded, “so there are some questions you can answer.”
But when asked about his purchase of the only copy of the new Wu-Tang Clan album, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” Shkreli once again declined to answer.
At one point, Shkreli’s lawyer attempted to interject and was promptly told by Chaffetz to sit down.
Ultimately, Shkreli was escorted out of the hearing room.
He later Tweeted that the members of Congress he just faced were “imbeciles”.
Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government.
Shkreli, 32, is separately accused of looting the pharmaceutical company he had founded, Retrophin, in order to pay off investors he was suspected of defrauding at hedge funds he ran. He has denied the charges, and appeared at a hearing on Wednesday in a Brooklyn court.
Your attempt to subvert my constitutional right to the 5th amendment are disgusting & insulting to all Americans @OversightDems@RepCummings
Ahead of the hearing, Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a memo highlighting some of their findings. Those documents include emails in which Shkreli eagerly anticipated a windfall telling the chairman of the board of directors that Turing Pharmaceuticals had made significant progress towards acquiring Daraprim.
“Very good. Nice work as usual. $1bn here we come,” Shkreli said in a May 27, 2015 email.
In August of 2015, Shkreli wrote an outside contact, “I think it will be huge. We raised the price from $1,700 per bottle to $75,000 … So 5,000 paying bottles at the new price is $375,000,000 almost all of it is profit and I think we will get 3 years of that or more. Should be a very handsome investment for all of us. Let’s all cross our fingers that the estimates are accurate.”
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) February 4, 2016
