UPDATE 1-U.S. House committee seeks testimony from 'Pharma Bro' Shkreli

(Adds comment from Cummings)
By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional panel
has asked pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martin Shkreli to testify
at a Jan. 26 hearing about his company's decision to raise the
price of a life-saving prescription drug, according to a
Republican committee staffer.
Shkreli, who became known as "Pharma Bro," created a fire
storm last year after his company Turing Pharmaceuticals hiked
the price of a drug called Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent.
Last month, Shkreli was forced to step down as Turing CEO
amid criminal and civil securities fraud charges alleging he ran
a Ponzi-like scheme during his tenure at the hedge fund MSMB
Capital Management and while he was the CEO of Retrophin
RTRX.O , another drug company he previously headed.
The securities fraud charges are unrelated to the drug
pricing probe by the committee.
The hearing before the House of Representatives Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform will primarily focus on Turing's
price spike of Daraprim, and price hikes for two of Valeant
Pharmaceutical's VRX.TO heart medications - Isuprel and
Nitropress.
A Democratic committee staffer told Reuters on Friday that
Valeant's Interim CEO Howard Schiller is also expected to appear
at the hearing.
A Valeant spokeswoman confirmed that Schiller will attend,
and said he looks forward to testifying and that the company is
cooperating with the ongoing congressional probe.
An attorney for Shkreli declined to comment.
Earlier this month, House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz
and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings jointly sent document
requests to Valeant, Turing and Shkreli.
In their requests, the lawmakers asked for documents showing
each company's gross revenues and profits from the sales of the
drugs in question, as well as communications by the CEOs in
connection with the drugs.
Since then, Turing has given tens of thousands of documents
to U.S. congressional investigators ahead of the hearing,
according to a Democratic committee staffer.
A spokeswoman for Turing did not have an immediate comment.
The committee is expected to review another batch of
documents from Valeant in the near future. The deadline for
submission is Jan. 22.
The House Oversight panel's interest in drug pricing was
sparked by Cummings, who for more than a year has called for the
Republican-led panel to probe prescription drug pricing.
In a statement, Cummings said he is glad there is now
bipartisan support for an investigation.
He said Americans are "fed up with watching major drug
companies rake in record profits while they continue to struggle
to afford their medicines."