Valeant slammed, Shkreli calls Congress ‘imbeciles’ in tweet

"They bought them, jacked up the prices, took as much money as they could out of the pockets of patients, hospitals, and others, and then put those funds into their own coffers," said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

At one point, Shkreli cracked a smile midway through Cummings's remarks about how the company's price increases hurt patients.

"It's not funny, Mr. Shkreli, people are dying," Cummings said at the packed hearing room in Washington. Shkreli is facing federal fraud charges unrelated to Turing. He has maintained his innocence.

Fifth Amendment

Shkreli declined to make any comments to the committee. "On the advice of counsel, I invoke my Fifth Amendment."

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Rep. Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, tried to lure Shkreli into speaking by asking him how to pronounce his name, which Shkreli provided.

"See there, you can answer!" Gowdy said. Shkreli then turned to his lawyer, who was sitting behind him, before turning back to the congressman.

"I intend to follow the advice of my counsel, not yours," Shkreli told the congressman. Gowdy kept pressing Shkreli, saying that the hearing wasn't focused on the charges against Shkreli. Shkreli repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, which allow people to avoid incriminating themselves.

At one point, Shkreli's lawyer, Ben Brafman, asked, "May I interject, Mr. Chairman?"

"You are not recognized, and you will be seated," said Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah.

Poster children

Turing and Valeant have become the poster companies for an industry that has been increasingly in the spotlight in Washington for raising some prices so high that they're out of reach for many patients and straining state and federal budgets. Valeant shares have plunged over the last six months as the company became a lightning rod for the U.S. debate over the price of drugs and its business practices have been questioned. The stock rose 3.4 percent to $97.42 at 12:14 in New York.

As Cummings spoke, Shkreli smiled and toyed with a wooden pencil. Another member accused Shkreli of not taking the hearing seriously, and of posing for a picture instead of listening to members of Congress.

"I know you're smiling but I'm very serious, sir," Cummings said. "You have a spotlight and you have a platform. You could use that attention to come clean, to right your wrongs and to become one of the most effective patients' advocates in the country and one that can make a big difference in so many peoples lives."

Shkreli was excused after his testimony. Brafman, speaking outside the hearing room, said that Shkreli would have liked to talk.

Shkreli's lawyer

"This was a frustrating morning for us," Brafman said, "frustrating because many of the things said in this hearing were just not accurate."

He said that some of Shkreli's demeanor at the hearing was "nervous energy," and that it was unfair that Turing had been singled out.

The "priority is to resolve the criminal case," Brafman said. "I think at the end of this story he is a hero."

In fact, Shkreli did comment on Twitter, minutes after leaving the hearing. "Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government," he said.

That didn't go unnoticed by lawmakers. "He sends a tweet calling everybody on this committee imbeciles — did you know that?" Cummings asked Nancy Retzlaff, Turing's chief commercial officer. "You all spent all of your time strategizing about how to hide your price increase behind positive PR, and come here with stupid jokes."