Congresswoman lauded for brutal take-down of CEO who earned millions by increasing medical costs

Congresswoman Katie Porter has been widely praised on social media for exposing how a former executive of a pharmaceutical company had greatly profited from raising the price of a common cancer drug.

Speaking to Mark Alles, who used to be the CEO of the pharmaceutical firm Celgene, Porter, a Democrat representing California's 45th district, exposed – using nothing but a whiteboard and a marker pen – how much money he has made at the expense of others.

Highlighting the compensation that he received from the company, which was $13m, Porter went on to explain how Celegne tripled the cost of cancer medication but didn't actually do anything extra to improve it, all the while increasing his earnings. She then reveals that he earned an extra $500,000 because of this price hike.

She caps off her speech by saying:

To recap: The drug didn’t get any better. The cancer patients didn’t get any better. You just got better at making money. You just refined your skills at price gouging.

A clip of Porter's perfect dressing down of Alles in Congress has now been viewed more than 15 million times on Twitter with many praising her cross-examination of not just Alles but corporate America.

Porter has also shared the video on social media and asked 'how many patients lost their lives because they couldn't afford this medicine?'

Porter assumed office in January 2019 and famously scolded Mark Zuckerberg last year when the Facebook creator and owner testified before the House Financial Services Committee.

She had previously studied as a consumer protection lawyer and had studied bankruptcy law under Elizabeth Warren.

Others who have felt her intense brand of questioning have included the Housing and Urban Development secretary Ben Carson and the director of the CDC Robert Redfield.