Martin Shkreli takes the 5th, then turns to Twitter to blast 'imbeciles'

Martin Shkreli, during one of his live streams

After trying his best to get out of appearing in front of a House committee, the recently indicted exec and all-round biotech bad boy Martin Shkreli showed up and asserted his 5th amendment right to avoid self-incrimination this morning, just as he said he would.

But once he got out from under the lights, he let loose on his favorite forum: Twitter.

About the only way Shkreli had to communicate was with his facial expressions. And he had studied up on strategic smirking ahead of time.

The House committee has been turning the heat up on Shkreli's Turing for jacking up the price of Daraprim by more than 5000%. And Valeant ($VRX), now headed by an interim CEO after Michael Pearson called in sick, is getting plenty of uncomfortable attention for its own price-jacking business strategy.

So far, however, lawmakers have been less willing to scrutinize the routine industry practice of regularly raising prices of aging drugs. And this isn't the kind of spotlight anyone wants to share shoulder to shoulder with Martin Shkreli--particularly in an election year in which drug pricing in general is emerging as a key issue. -- John Carroll (email | Twitter)