Pharmaceutical chief Martin Shkreli refused to testify Thursday in an appearance before U.S. lawmakers who excoriated him over severe hikes for a drug sold by a company that he acquired. Janelle Wang reports.
More controversy over former drug CEO Martin Shkreli as he testified in front of a Congressional committee today – or didn’t, rather. Instead, he refused to answer a single question under oath, pleading the Fifth Amendment.
The former CEO of Kalobios, based in San Francisco, is facing unrelated federal charges for alleged security crimes. He’s also taken a lot of heat for his time as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, when he hiked the price of life-saving HIV drug Daraprim by 5,000 percent.
“Do you think you’ve done anything wrong?” Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) asked Shkreli. To that, Shkreli pleaded the Fifth Amendment again.
However, the 32-year-old so-called ‘bad boy of pharma’ expressed himself in other ways such as rolling his eyes, smirking, playing with his pencil and ignoring members of Congress.
Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-South Carolina) said he was “vexed.” After irritated members excused him, Shkreli took to Twitter: “Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government.”
“For him to tweet that for the world to see – wow – that seems to suggest, you know the rules don’t apply to me,” Thomas Plante, Santa Clara University professor of psychology, said after watching the hearing today.
“I was having this image of a middle school teacher scolding a young student for acting like a jerk in class,” Plante said, explaining it is diagnose from afar but says Shkreli may have personality issues.
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“When you see egotistical behavior or narcissistic behavior sort of on steroids, it can be absolutely breathtaking,” Plante said, explaining this type of behavior he is displaying is a growing trend in society.
“Unfortunately we live in a time and a place where it’s all about ‘me’ and not about ‘we,’ Plante said, explaining Shkreli’s attitudes may have been reinforced each time he climbed in his career and his behavior is unlikely to change since he is over 30.
“It’s probably pretty late in the game to expect personality change, but people do sort of have what we call ‘Come to Jesus moment’ where they say, ‘oh my goodness what have I done?’” Plante said.
Shkreli also appeared in federal court yesterday for securities fraud allegations. His next court date for those charges is in May.
