Congressional committee not amused as Big Pharma Bro smirked his way
through hearing
By Jen Hayden
Thursday Feb 04, 2016 · 11:32 AM PST
Pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli appeared before a
congressional committee to answer questions about Turing
Pharmaceutical’s decision to raise the
price of life-saving Diagram from $13.50 to $750 per pill, a 5,000%
increase which has generally been viewed as the pinnacle of greed in
the pharmaceutical
industry. He laughed and smirked his way through the hearing,
repeatedly invoking the Fifth Amendment and refusing to answer any
questions.
Congressional committee members were not amused:
block quote
"Drug company executives are lining their pockets at the expense of
some of the most vulnerable families in our nation," U.S. Rep. Elijah
Cummings, D-Maryland,
said. "It's not funny, Mr. Shkreli. People are dying and they're
getting sicker and sicker."
block quote end
block quote
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Georgia, the only pharmacist in Congress,
said during the hearing that he supports free-market principles but
was "disgusted"
by drug-price-hiking companies.
"What was done here was different," Carter said. "Perverse business
practices were employed.”
block quote end
You can see video of the hearing, including questions from clearly
clearly agitated congressman, below the fold. After the hearing,
Shkreli couldn’t keep
his mouth shut:
Twitter Tweet frame
block quote cited from
https://twitter.com/MartinShkreli/status/695264859907317761
Follow
Martin Shkreli (screen name: MartinShkreli)
Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government.
