Everyone's least favorite pharma bro is at it again this week as he publicly and loudly ignored a congressional subpoena demanding he travel to DC to testify in front of lawmakers. Martin Shkreli, who made news for both drastically increasing the price of life-saving drugs and purchasing the one of a kind Wu-Tang album, was arrested on charges of securities fraud last December with the terms of his bail dictating that he remain in New York state. It is his failure to seek court approval to travel to DC that has angered at least one lawmaker.

“Mr. Shkreli was subpoenaed to appear before Congress, and it is his responsibility to take reasonable steps to comply," Maryland Congressman Elijah E. Cummings said in a statement yesterday. "If he plans on trying to use his own intentional inaction as some kind of bogus excuse for not showing up at Tuesday’s hearing, people will see right through such a juvenile tactic."

Cummings is the ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the representative seeks to have Shkreli testify regarding his August 2015 overnight price hike of the drug Daraprim from $13.50 a tablet to $750.

Shkreli responded in what seems to be the only way he knows how — by mocking the federal government on Twitter.

The aspiring rapper goes on to argue that as he is charged with securities fraud, his 5th amendment protection allows him to skip the committee hearing. Thus Shkreli has made no legal arrangements to get to DC.

"Your attempt to subvert my constitutional right to the 5th amendment are disgusting & insulting to all Americans," he tweeted yesterday to both Representative Cummings and the Oversight Committee.

As the fraud case against Shkreli is unrelated to the price hike he orchestrated as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, and rather focuses on his alleged "Ponzi scheme," it is unclear if the argument will hold water.

Cummings doesn't appear to be messing around, however, and the statement issued by his office drives that point home.

"Several federal statutes could be implicated if Shkreli does not comply with the subpoena," it notes. "The Committee could seek to hold him in contempt under 2 U.S.C. Section 194, and he could receive jail time and financial penalties under 2 U.S.C. Section 192."

We won't have to wait very long to see how this very entertaining drama plays out — Shrekli has only a few days to decide whether or not he will comply as the subpoena requests he appears in front of congress on January 26. But who knows, he might just cross his fingers and hope for a snow day.

All previous coverage of Martin Shrekli on SFist.

KaloBios is in trouble. The publicly traded South San Francisco biotech company is facing a possible delisting from NASDAQ following in the wake of the arrest of widely loathed CEO Martin Shkreli. Shkreli bought a controlling stake in the company just this past month and served as CEO before the company fired him on Monday of this week.

To add to the company's troubles, the San Francisco Business Times reports that the KaloBios independent accountant resigned after working for the company for less than two weeks.

Shkreli, you most certainly remember, made headlines when he raised the price of a live-saving drug from $13.50 to $750 (per tablet) overnight. He later announced plans to likewise hike the price of another life-saving drug.

Oh yeah, and he bought the only copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album and then claimed his price gouging of the ill was part of an ongoing artistic experiment. Which to that we can only say: fuck you, Martin.

But back to KaloBios. The Times reports that the company was teetering on bankruptcy when Shkreli bought it, and trading of the company was halted on December 18th. Nasdaq apparently cited both Shkreli's arrest for running what federal authorities allege was a Ponzi-like scheme designed to repay investors he defrauded and a civil compliant against Shkreli by the Securities and Exchange Commission in its decision to delist the company.

KaloBios may appeal the move, but if it does not do so by Wednesday, its stock will be pulled from the exchange.

Update: KaloBios has been delisted and trading was halted on the NASDAQ on Dec. 24. The company is appealing the delisting, and a hearing is scheduled for February.

Previously: Walking Trash Pile / Aspiring Rapper Martin Shkreli Fired From Bay Area Company He Just Bought

"THEY SEE ME ROLLING..." pic.twitter.com/D1mDBEeZMq

— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) September 16, 2015

Everyone's least favorite exemplar of late capitalism, pharmaceutical trash-ball Martin Shkreli, was predictably, officially fired today from his role as CEO of the South San Francisco biotech company KaloBios. Shkreli, who made headlines this fall for orchestrating astronomical price hikes of previously inexpensive life-saving medicines, was arrested by federal authorities last Thursday for running what they allege was a Ponzi-like scheme to placate investors he defrauded several years ago.

The publicly traded company announced the decision in a press release this morning, and also said Shkreli had resigned from his position as a member of the board of directors.

Shkreli only become CEO of KaloBios in November, after his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, bought an estimated 70 percent stake in the Bay Area company.

The fall has been fast and hard for the 32-year-old Shkreli, who earlier this month made some very different headlines by announcing that he paid $2 million for a one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album.

In an interview with HipHopDX published the day before his arrest, Shkreli demonstrated how fully bat-shit insane he is by attempting to explain the purchase of the Wu-Tang Clan album and his price hikes of medicine as some sort of artistic experiment leading to an eventual career in rap (seriously).

“To me, what I’m doing right now in the media, raising prices, all this shit, believe what you want, but it’s interesting," blabbered Shkreli. "It gets people talking. At the end of the day, that’s what art is. I don’t know if I can translate the shit into rap or not, but I’ll try… In 500 years, they’re going to talk about rap the same way we talk about Shakespeare. I just want to throw my hat in the ring, that's all. I don’t want to make money.”

Which: youhavegottobeshittingme.

Shkreli went on to compare himself to one of the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan, GZA.

"GZA is literally a genius," dumbsplained the hated executive. "Not everyone loves his flow. I can do something like that, I guarantee it."

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the aspiring artist bemoaned his arrest as a "real injustice" that had nothing to do with his business practices, but rather resulted from his trolling of people on the internet.

Shkreli faces twenty years in prison if convicted.

Previously: Garbage Human Martin Shkreli Once Again Plans To Massively Raise Cost Of Lifesaving Drug

"THEY SEE ME ROLLING..." pic.twitter.com/D1mDBEeZMq

— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) September 16, 2015

Much reviled pharma guy Martin Shkreli has yet again revealed himself to be operating from a place of questionable morality. The 70 percent owner of South San Francisco-based KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. has announced plans to increase the two-month treatment price of a lifesaving drug from $100 to an estimated $80,000.

Shkreli's Turing Pharmaceuticals was in the news earlier this year, when the founder announced he would raise the price of a drug used by AIDS patients to treat parasitic infections from $13.50 to $750 per pill.

Tech Times notes that the more recently proposed price increase, announced in an investor conference call last week, would target a drug used to treat Chagas disease, a particular parasitic infection that can be fatal.

The two-month course of the drug, benznidazole, is currently available at the cost of $50 to $100 in Latin America, notes the Times, but at present is only available in the United States directly from the Centers for Disease Control (the CDC makes the drug available for free).

Shkreli's move, suggests the New York Times, is part of a larger scheme to acquire a FDA voucher for expediting the review process of another drug. By bringing benznidazole to the US commercial market, albeit at an exorbitant rate, Shkreli would be eligible for a voucher originally intended as a reward to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for neglected diseases. His company could then sell this voucher (vouchers have sold for as much as $350 million, notes the New York Times) to another pharmaceutical company.

“It’s caused a lot of angst in the Chagas community,” says Dr. Sheba Meymandi, the director of a Chagas treatment center. “Everyone’s in an uproar.”

It is estimated that 300,000 people in the United States suffer the disease.

Related: Hated Pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli Unmasked As Exclusive Owner Of Wu-Tang's New Album

Loathed CEO Martin Shkreli has apparently survived a high-profile Internet shaming and is seeking refuge in the Bay Area. You may recall that Gawker and others called the finance bro turned pharma bro a "villain" after his his startup, Turing Pharmaceuticals, price-gouged Malaria drug Daraprim, a product that leapt 5,000 percent overnight from $13.50 to $750 per tablet.

During the affair, the New York Times also drew attention to a complaint lodged by Shkreli's previous company in Manhattan Federal District Court, which alleged that Shkreli still owes them $25 million in severance.

But never mind all that: Now Shkreli has touched down in San Francisco, where CBS SF and the Huffington Post report that he's purchased something like a 70 percent stake in KaloBios, a publicly traded South San Francisco biotech group. On Twitter, Shkreli announced that he's just become CEO and chairman of the board.

Following the initial backlash, it should be noted that Shkreli lowered the price on that Malaria drug, though just for hospitals.

KaloBios, which is in clinical trials for two leukemia drugs, was up 800 percent on news of the purchase because ew, and the stock was met with another 100 percent uptick today according to Business Insider. Shkreli told HuffPo that he'd welcome back laid of employees at the struggling KaloBios, as he indicated he would in a tweet.

Jesus Christ. As if this week could get any worse: A federal advisory panel has recommended that the FDA issue a ban on Vicodin and Percocet due to their damaging effects on the liver. Both painkillers combine a narcotic with acetometophin (a.k.a. Tylenol) -- a combo that's been found to be particularly damaging after extended use -- and along with seven other prescription drugs these two would go off the market if the FDA follows the panel's recommendation, which they usually do. This would be a huge blow to both pharmaceutical companies and pain pill fans alike. As the NY Times reports, "Vicodin and its generic equivalents alone are prescribed more than 100 million times a year in the United States." Whatever will we beg our dentists for the next time we must undergo oral surgery?