Martin Shkreli defended his constitutional right not to assist a Congressional investigation after a senator lashed out against him on Twitter. 
 
 Republican Susan Collins tweeted Wednesday that Shkreli's choice to invoke the Fifth Amendment is akin to stonewalling Congress' investigation. 
 
 Collins chairs the Senate Committee on Aging, which is investigating why the former pharmaceutical CEO's company raised the price of a drug used by AIDS patients by 5,000%. 
 
 Shkreli vehemently defended his right to invoke the Fifth Amendment. 
 
 "I have valid justification. Are you serious? I have constitutional rights. No wonder trust in the US Government is at a low," Shkreli said." 
 
 @SenatorCollins I have valid justification. Are you serious? I have constitutional rights. No wonder trust in the US Government is at a low. — Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) January 21, 2016 
 
 The exchange follows earlier tweets that Shkreli sent Wednesday, showing a photo of a separate subpoena to appear before a January 26 House oversight committee hearing about "developments in the prescription drug market." 
 
 Before tweeting about the hearing, Shkreli had posted that the House was "busy whining" to journalists about him appearing before them for a "chit chat." He pondered whether he should attend. 
 
 House busy whining to healthcare reporters about me appearing for their chit chat next week. Haven't decided yet. Should I? @RepCummings — Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) January 20, 2016 
 
 Shkreli directed the tweet at Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democrat who is the ranking member of the House committee that subpoenaed him. 
 
 "I have been trying for the better part of a year to get information from Martin Shkreli about his outrageous price increases and he has obstructed our investigation at every turn," Cummings said in a statement on Wednesday. "He claims publicly that he wants to explain to Congress how drug pricing works. On Tuesday, he will get his chance." 
 
 Related: Who is Martin Shkreli? A timeline 
 
 Shkreli is also in the midst of a federal criminal case for alleged securities fraud. He recently filed to replace his attorneys and asked for a two-week delay to prepare for the trial with his new representation. 
 
 Shkreli was arrested in December but secured bail with a $45 million E*Trade account. 
 
 He was the subject of intense public outrage after the drug-price hike but seems to have rebounded by taking to YouTube to livestream his life. 
 
 He's definitely keeping his calendar full while awaiting trial. He also had a busy 2015 -- he was forced to resign from Turing Pharmaceuticals after the drug hike scandal and he was fired from a second company: KaloBios. That company was eventually forced to file for bankruptcy. 
 
 Calls to Shkreli and one of his attorneys were not immediately returned. ||||| CLOSE Drug executive Martin Shkreli, who vigorously defends his decision to hike the price of a life-saving drug, went silent and smirked as he appeared at a Congressional hearing on Thursday. VPC 
 
 Martin Shkreli takes his seat before the House Committee on Oversight & Reform on Feb. 4, 2016. (Photo: Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY) 
 
 WASHINGTON—Embattled drug entrepreneur Martin Shkreli — who vigorously defended his decision to hike the price of a life-saving drug from $13.50 to $750 — suddenly went silent Thursday at a Congressional committee, smirking and grinning instead of answering questions. 
 
 Now facing an unrelated federal criminal indictment, the typically loquacious Shkreli refused to testify, repeatedly citing his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. 
 
 Members of Congress launched into fiery lectures directed at Shkreli, whose previous company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, came under scrutiny when it raised the price of Daraprim more than 5,000%. The pill is used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease that afflicts people with weakened immune systems, such as those with AIDS and pregnant women. 
 
 "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." 
 
 The boyish-faced Shkreli sat quietly at the witness table, clasping his hands tightly and slowly rubbing his fingers together as he was lectured. He smirked several times and appeared on the verge of laughter at one point when Cummings was speaking. 
 
 After the hearing, he removed any doubt about his feelings. 
 
 "Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government," Shkreli said on Twitter, where he proceeded to retweet messages from several supporters. 
 
 Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, smiles while flanked by Nancy Retzlaff, chief commercial officer, during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. Shkreli invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify to the committee that is examining the prescription drug market. (Photo: Mark Wilson, Getty Images) 
 
 Pelted with hostile questions, Shkreli repeatedly recited a prepared statement that he would not testify on the advice of his counsel. He is facing multiple criminal securities charges over allegations that he took stock from a previous biotech company to pay off business debts and lied about the investment returns of his former hedge fund. 
 
 U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, professed to be flabbergasted at Shkreli's silence on drug price-hiking issues, telling the entrepreneur that he could testify on those matters without incriminating himself. 
 
 "I intend to follow the advice of counsel, not yours," Shkreli told Gowdy. 
 
 At one point, Shkreli's attorney, Ben Brafman, stood up in the crowd and tried to intervene. But U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the committee, quickly rejected Brafman's efforts. 
 
 "No, you are not recognized and you will be seated," Chaffetz said. 
 
 After less than an hour, Chaffetz dismissed Shkreli from the hearing since he was refusing to say anything. 
 
 In a brief press conference afterward, Brafman sought to explain Shkreli's dismissive facial expressions, saying his client was just "nervous." Shkreli did not comment during the press conference, but tweeted moments later. 
 
 In days before the hearing, he blasted Congress and made sarcastic jokes on Twitter about the subpoena he received to testify. 
 
 "I'm not going to say anything other than the 5th Amendment," he said recently. "They just want this to be a circus." 
 
 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." 
 
 The charismatic persona that Shkreli has cultivated — paying $2 million for the only copy of a new Wu Tang Clan album and setting up a web cam to film himself working — amplified the tension with Congress. 
 
 "People in my district are not on the Forbes billionaire list — they can’t buy Wu Tang Clan albums for $2 million," Cummings said. "Like many Americans, they struggle every single month to pay for the increasing cost of housing, education and health care. They live from paycheck to paycheck, and sometimes from no check to no check." 
 
 In addition to Shkreli, several other executives were also set to appear before the committee. 
 
 Howard Schiller, interim CEO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals, which has also come under fire for its business model and drug prices, cited the company's recent price-cutting deal with Walgreens as an example of its responsiveness. 
 
 "We’re listening and we’re changing," he said. "We have more to do." 
 
 Schiller pledged that any future drug price increases would be "much more modest" than the increases that enraged Congress. 
 
 Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey. 
 
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 WASHINGTON — Martin Shkreli, reviled former chief executive officer at Turing Pharmaceuticals, has invoked the Fifth Amendment in refusing to produce documents subpoenaed by a Senate committee investigating drug-pricing practices, the panel's chairwoman said Wednesday. 
 
 Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said on Twitter that the investigation by the Senate Special Committee on Aging could be hindered without Shkreli's cooperation. 
 
 “Absent a valid justification for the grounds for invoking the Fifth Amendment, Mr. Shkreli’s assertion could hinder our investigation.” — Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) January 20, 2016 
 
 Word of Shkreli's refusal to cooperate with the Senate investigation came after it was reported that House lawmakers have issued a subpoena to compel Shkreli to appear at a congressional hearing next Tuesday. 
 
 An aide to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform confirmed the news to the Associated Press. The committee is investigating several companies for exorbitant drug price increases. ||||| This story has been updated. 
 
 Martin Shkreli has left the building. 
 
 Shkreli, the former chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, who gained notoriety for jacking up a little-known drug's price, was excused from a House hearing on drug prices after he refused to answer any questions -- other than how to pronounce his name correctly, or to confirm that, yes, he was listening. 
 
 After minutes of refusal to answer questions, during which Shkreli fidgeted, looked away and appeared to smirk at times, he gave his parting remarks on Twitter: 
 
 Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government. — Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) February 4, 2016 
 
 Five minutes were set aside for opening remarks that could shed light on Shkreli's controversial decision to raise the price of Daraprim, a drug for a rare but severe infection that afflicts people with compromised immune systems. But Shkreli declined to make any. Instead, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, began asking him questions about patients affected by the price and remarks he had made previously. Shkreli gave the same composed answer to each question: 
 
 "On the advice of counsel, I invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question," Shkreli said. Repeatedly. 
 
 [Why is this ‘bro’ smiling? The many smirks of Martin Shkreli.] 
 
 Shkreli didn't come willingly to Thursday's hearing. He was compelled by a subpoena that he threatened to ignore and that his lawyers argued against vehemently. 
 
 Wearing a slim-cut black jacket, Shkreli sat at the end of a row of witnesses called before the committee with hands folded, fidgeting a bit and smiling uncomfortably at times -- tics his attorney, Benjamin Brafman, called the "nervous energy" of the 32-year-old former hedge fund manager, not meant to show disrespect to any member of Congress. 
 
 Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) described Turing as a "Ponzi scheme" in his opening remarks, saying the research and development that Turing has claimed it is doing to justify its high prices is simply research on which new drugs it could acquire to raise their prices. 
 
 Shkreli smirked. 
 
 "It's not funny, Mr. Shkreli. People are dying," Cummings said. 
 
 One of the few questions he did answer, asked by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), was whether the congressman had pronounced Shkreli's last name correctly. 
 
 When Gowdy told Shkreli he could answer questions without incriminating himself, since they would not bear on the securities fraud charges being brought against him in a separate matter, he said, "I intend to follow the advice of my counsel, not yours." 
 
 Eventually, Shkreli was excused, trailed by a media scrum. 
 
 Your attempt to subvert my constitutional right to the 5th amendment are disgusting & insulting to all Americans @OversightDems @RepCummings — Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) January 21, 2016 
 
 The hearing focused on two companies that drove up the price of drugs they didn't invent -- by more than 5,000 percent in the case of Daraprim. After Shkreli's departure, the rest of the witnesses testified. Among them was Turing's current chief commercial officer, Nancy Retzlaff. Howard Schiller, the interim chief executive of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, another company that has been accused of operating more like a hedge fund than a drug company, appeared. Janet Woodcock, the director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration, and Mark Merritt, the president of the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, a trade group that represents pharmacy benefit companies, was also present. 
 
 [How pharma bro Martin Shkreli described his own drug price hike: 'Almost all of it is profit.'] 
 
 Turing and Valeant both turned over tens of thousands of pages of documents. Some highlights were presented in two memos released earlier this week. Although there are fascinating details taken from internal emails that draw back the curtain on the tactics of drug pricing, the main finding thus far is simple: Both companies strove to maximize profits. 
 
 There are still thousands of pages of documents for the committee to mine for clues about how to prevent a practice that has been called "price gouging." But at least so far, the evidence appears to echo the revelations of a previous Senate investigation of an $84,000 hepatitis C drug. That company, Gilead, also sought to maximize profits, even as its price affected patients' access to the drug. 
 
 Not to be snarky, but a report showing that a for-profit company sought to maximize profits is exactly what you'd expect. No? — Charles Ornstein (@charlesornstein) December 1, 2015 
 
 High drug prices hit a nerve with the public and with politicians, but so far, congressional hearings have generated lots of buzz and few solutions. 
 
 More from Wonkblog: 
 
 How an $84000 drug got its price: "Let's hold our position" 
 
 ‘Pharma bro’ Martin Shkreli responds to a subpoena with sarcastic tweets 
 
 A social media war just erupted over the biotech innovation of the century ||||| The appearance of former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli, the hoodie-wearing, hip-hop-loving indicted millennial multimillionaire, will certainly create congressional theatrics. | AP Photo Martin Shkreli calls lawmakers 'imbeciles' The normally outspoken Martin Shkreli held his fire — until after the hearing. 
 
 The drug industry’s most notorious CEO pleaded the Fifth Amendment before Congress on Thursday and then promptly called lawmakers "imbeciles" on Twitter. 
 
 "Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government," tweeted Martin Shkreli, the former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO who exulted in making a fortune by jacking up the price of a life-saving medicine. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 The appearance of the hoodie-wearing, hip-hop-loving indicted millennial multimillionaire created congressional theatrics — even though the usually chatty businessman, who showed up Thursday wearing a suit and no tie, stayed silent during the House hearing. 
 
 Democrats, including the presidential contenders, portray Shkreli as the face of an industry that increasingly puts profit above patients. Republicans, who oppose more government intervention in health care, depict him as a “bad apple,” an outlier besmirching an industry dedicated to life-saving innovation. 
 
 The trash-talking, attention-grabbing Shkreli is a one-man public relations disaster for the pharmaceutical lobby, whose representatives were making the rounds this week to educate lawmakers about why their companies are nothing like Turing and its bad boy former executive. PhRMA members, they say, invest time and money in research and development to bring cures to patients. Businesses like Turing, in contrast, buy old drugs from other companies and raise the prices — by 5,000 percent in Shkreli’s case. 
 
 Republicans on the House Oversight Committee Thursday morning chided Shkreli for refusing to answer their questions, citing some of his more notorious exploits, like purchasing a Wu-Tang Clan album for $2 million and broadcasting his life on social media. 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, I am stunned that conversation about an album purchased could possibly subject him to incrimination," said Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). Shrekli, who's facing a federal investigation, repeatedly declined to answer the committee's questions. 
 
 "On the advice of council, I invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and respectfully decline to answer your question," Shkreli said before leaving the hearing room. Shkreli's attorney later criticized the way lawmakers questioned his client. 
 
 "I think it's extraordinarily unfair that Turing has been singled out for the type of unfair publicity they have received, and when all the facts about Turing ... have been disclosed, I think everyone will recognize that Mr. Shkreli is not a villain, he is not the bad boy," said Shkreli's lawyer Ben Brafman told reporters. "I think at the end of this story he is a hero.” 
 
 Shkreli's silence during the hearing created more space for ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings and fellow Democrats to make more noise, turning the spotlight from Turing onto the drug industry more broadly. Cummings, who earlier in the week released a report finding Turing's price hike was driven primarily by profit, said that the price-gouging tactics are common practice in the industry. 
 
 "These tactics are not limited to a few bad apples — they are prominent," Cummings said Thursday morning, calling out a handful of pharma giants by name, including Pfizer and Teva. "All of these companies have taken significant price increases on their drugs." 
 
 Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz has taken a broader approach. He waited months before agreeing to Democratic requests for the hearing and he’s focused on the FDA. He argues that if the agency picked up the pace of approving generic drugs it could create more market competition, blunting these astronomical price hikes. 
 
 But Chaffetz isn’t letting the industry off the hook completely, either. The drug companies and regulators are in a “tug of war,” he told POLITICO this week. “There are legitimate questions on the full scope of the issue. Hopefully there are things that we can do that would increase the competition.” 
 
 Not all of the lobbyists and financial analysts worry that the hearing will inflict real damage to their industry. It’s pretty hard, they say, to upstage even a smugly silent Shkreli. This is, after all, the man who tweeted “Oh there’s nothing id like more than to tear Congress a new one.” 
 
 Bernstein analyst Ronny Gal also expected the panel would likely focus on the “more politically expedient” targets of Shkreli, Turing and Valeant, the other drug company in the hot seat. "This is what the drug industry wants as well," Gal said. 
 
 Valeant bought two heart drugs a year ago and dramatically increased their prices. The Oversight committee’s investigation revealed Valeant increased the prices of more than 20 other drugs by over 200 percent between 2014 and 2015. And the company is also facing a federal probe related to its pricing and distribution practices. 
 
 Valeant interim CEO Howard Schiller’s testimony struck a conciliatory tone, promising to raise drug prices more moderately in the future. "After years of rapid growth, which included significant price increases, we will no longer rely on such significant increases in prices," Schiller said. 
 
 Turing executive Nancy Retzlaff, who testified at the hearing, was more defensive of the company's decision to dramatically raise the price of its drug, Daraprim. Before Turing hiked the price overnight, Daraprim “was still being sold for a price that was well below its market value,” she said in prepared opening remarks. 
 
 Several polls have found that drug prices have become a big deal for consumers — Democrats and Republicans alike. And that could change the political calculations. 
 
 “It’s only a matter of time before it goes from ‘bad actors’ to everyone,” said Ipsita Smolinski, managing director of health care consulting firm Capitol Street. “The landscape has changed. Already we have seen Congress and CMS do things that we never would have seen before.” She pointed to a measure that will let Medicaid penalize generic drugmakers if they raise prices faster than inflation, and to some recent CMS decisions on reimbursement for biologic medicines. 
 
 Shkreli taunted the committee in the lead up to its hearing. He took his time getting a New York federal court's permission to travel to Washington — he’s facing federal securities fraud charges unrelated to his post at Turing and his bail agreement forbid him from leaving the state. He posted a picture of the congressional subpoena on Twitter and wrote, “Found this letter. Looks important.” 
 
 And whether he intended to or not, he did draw attention to other companies that are boosting their drug prices — though not as dramatically as Turing did to an AIDS medication. 
 
 One survey of 3,000 brand name drugs conducted by DRX, which provides health plans with price comparison software, led to the Bloomberg headline: "Shkreli was Right: Everyone’s Hiking Drug Prices.” It found that prices more than doubled for 60 drugs and at least quadrupled for 20 others since 2014. And the Oversight hearing announcement noted that the wholesale price rose more than eight times as fast as inflation for 30 of the top-selling U.S. drugs between 2010 and 2014 — 76 percent. 
 
 To Shkreli, 76 percent is piddling stuff. He’s said his only regret is that he didn’t jack up the price of Turing’s AIDS drug by even more than 5,000 percent. 
 
 Jennifer Haberkorn contributed to this report.
– Martin Shkreli "loves to talk," notes the New York Times, but the ex-Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO has taken the Fifth as a Senate committee looks into drug-pricing practices—and his refusal to hand over subpoenaed documents could impede the probe, NBC News reports. "Absent a valid justification for the grounds for invoking the Fifth Amendment, Mr. Shkreli's assertion could hinder our investigation," Maine Sen. Susan Collins, chair of the Senate's Special Committee on Aging, tweeted Wednesday. To which Shkreli responded later Wednesday night: "@SenatorCollins I have valid justification. Are you serious? I have constitutional rights. No wonder trust in the US Government is at a low." This development comes just days before Shkreli's subpoena-mandated appearance Tuesday at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is looking into several companies accused of excessively hiking prices, the AP reports. "I have been trying for the better part of a year to get information from Martin Shkreli about his outrageous price increases, and he has obstructed our investigation at every turn," Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings said in a statement Wednesday, per CNNMoney. Shkreli dished about the upcoming hearing on Twitter Wednesday, posting a pic of what appeared to be the House subpoena and striking back at Cummings. "House busy whining to healthcare reporters about me appearing for their chit chat next week. Haven't decided yet. Should I? @RepCummings," he tweeted. "He claims publicly that he wants to explain to Congress how drug pricing works. On Tuesday, he will get his chance," Cummings said in his statement. When asked by the Times if he would be at Tuesday's hearing, Shkreli emailed, "I made it clear that you are not to contact me ever again." In related news, Shkreli's lawyers put in paperwork Tuesday indicating that he wants to replace them, NBC notes. (More to the point: What's it like to date Martin Shkreli?)