Md. Congressman Goes Head-To-Head With Former Pharmaceuticals CEO

BALTIMORE (WJZ)--A Maryland congressman is leading the charge against drug companies that hike up prices to rake in huge profits at the expense of people's lives.

Congressman Elijah Cummings says stopping prescription price gouging has been his number one priority for years and today he came face-to-face with the poster boy for those businesses in a contentious hearing on Capitol Hill.

Meghan McCorkell has the latest.

Former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli was seen smugly during a hearing in front of members of Congress.

Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings fires back at the 32-year old who became infamous after he defiantly defended increasing the price of a life-saving drug 5,000-percent.

"It's not funny Mr. Shkreli. People are dying and they're getting sicker and sicker" said Cummings said at the hearing.

Cummings has been investigating prescription price gouging for years after receiving a letter from Maryland women's basketball coach Brenda Frese that the cost of her son's cancer drugs skyrocketed.

"We rely, we count on this medicine for our son," said Frese.

When Cummings tried to question Shkreli today he invoked his Fifth Amendment right.

"On the advice of counsel I invoke my fifth amendment privilege against self incrimination," said Shkreli.

But, in Turing emails released Thursday, before raising the price Shkreli writes a colleague, "one billion dollars here we come."

While Shkreli was tight lipped inside the hearing, he was not silent on his Twitter page.

Minutes after leaving the Hill, he tweets, "hard to accept that these imbeciles represent people in our government".

That led a furious Cummings to go after Turing, saying the company's more concerned about bad public relations.

The congressman says he wants people to know they're not going to be ripped off.

Martin Shkreli is currently facing securities fraud charges in New York. He's been released on $5 million bond.

After Shkreli was dismissed from the Hill, his lawyer called him a "brilliant scientist" with a "devotion to saving lives".