The political pressure on pharmaceutical company Mylan continued to grow Wednesday with another Senate committee demanding answers for why the cost of EpiPens has skyrocketed and Hillary Clinton denouncing the price hike on the presidential campaign trail.
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For patients previously paying the full amount of the company’s list price, this effectively reduces their out-of-pocket cost exposure by half, Mylan said.
Mylan purchased EpiPen from The Merck Group in 2007 and said in a press release earlier this week that it offers a patient assistance program to help defray costs of the medication, and gives free EpiPen Auto-Injectors to schools in the U.S. It said the “evolving healthcare insurance landscape” has caused more people to have high deductible health plans. “Therefore, I demand that Mylan take immediate action to lower the price of EpiPen’s for all Americans that rely on this product for their health and safety”.
“We have reached out to every member of Congress who has sent us a letter, and we look forward to meeting with them and responding to their questions as soon as possible”, Devlin said. Also, payers say they’ve had to raise out-of-pocket costs because of high drug prices.
Drug maker Mylan increased the cost from an average of $103 in 2009 to more than $600 this year.
With her account’s signature “-H” marking to signify the message was coming from Clinton herself, the tweet linked to an expansive Facebook post wherein the former First Lady attacked Mylan and its recent price hikes on the EpiPen. He said that while he realizes that research and development of innovative drugs and medical technology cost billions of dollars, “it must be balanced with the need to ensure patient access to life-saving technology”.
However, the media seems to have only recently caught on to the fact that Mylan’s CEO, Heather Bresch, is the daughter of Senator Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.).
And certainly people with life-threatening allergies are better off with easy access to the drug. For Mylan, the EpiPen is a key product that provides 40 percent of its operating profit. She reincorporated her US -based drug company in the Netherlands, which cut its tax liability.
“My hope is that is going to be finally the straw that breaks the camel’s back, or breaks pharma’s back, and we’ll be able to make some change”, Klobuchar said. If it turns out Mylan increased the price just because they felt like it, that’s totally legal.
Clinton’s comments came after a bipartisan group of lawmakers called for investigations into the price increase of EpiPens, which are preloaded injections of epinephrine (adrenaline) used in case of a risky allergic reaction that could cause death if untreated.
Klobuchar supports allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices for millions of seniors.
White House spokesman JoshEarnest wouldn’t comment directly on Mylan’s pricing of EpiPens.
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Since Clinton issued the statement Wednesday afternoon, the Biotechnology Index has fallen nearly 2%, while Mylan was down more than 5%.
