NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The U.S. Senate has launched an investigation into Turing Pharmaceuticals — the drug company that hiked the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 percent.

In a letter released Wednesday, the Senate Special Committee on Aging said it was looking into the "pricing of off-patent drugs," and requested information from Turing CEO Martin Shkreli.

The committee will investigate Turing's "acquisition of the rights to sell Daraprim," and the decision to raise the price from $13.50 a pill to $750.00.

Daraprim is a drug used by some AIDS and cancer patients to treat a life-threatening, parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis.

Although Daraprim has been around for decades, Shkreli's Turing Pharmaceuticals only acquired the rights to sell the drug in August. Soon after, Turing hiked the price.

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Stepping into the furor over eye-popping price spikes for old generic medicines, a maker of compounded drugs will begin selling $1 doses of Daraprim, whose price recently was jacked up to $750 per pill by Turing Pharmaceuticals.

Despite publicly saying he would lower the cost, the drug remains prohibitively expensive.

Shkreli has been ordered to provide a variety of documentation and information about Turing's business to the committee by December 2, 2015.

Among the committee's requests, it asked for the identity of "the Turing employee responsible for setting the price of Daraprim."

The drug pricing controversy even sparked reaction from Democratic presidential candidates.

Hillary Clinton called for an investigation into Turing and criticized drug companies for price gouging.

Bernie Sanders rejected a $2,700 campaign donation from Shkreli. Shkreli didn't take the rejection well — he said he was so angry at Sanders he "could punch a wall!"

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