And the USA government has very little control when it comes to how drug prices are set, especially when they’re under market exclusivity, the authors said.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) As a pharmaceutical company run by U.S. Sen. None other than U.S. Senator Joe Manchin’s daughter.
Some patients can cut costs even more by filling manual syringes with epinephrine themselves, but that can be a tricky process and must be done with extreme care. “I demand that Mylan take immediate action to lower the price of EpiPens for all Americans that rely on this product for their health and safety”, he wrote in a letter to the company.
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, the chief Democrat on the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee whose daughter has food allergies, also called for investigation.
That is changing as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the American Medical Association and a number of USA senators are calling on Bresch to roll back the steep price hikes on EpiPens.
A Mylan statement Monday cited health insurance changes resulting in higher deductible costs for many families.
Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk.
EpiPens are used to ward off potentially fatal allergic reactions, and the price has surged in recent years.
“The quality of Mylan’s drugs isn’t improving, but the company thinks it is acceptable to quadruple their prices”.
In this Friday, July 8, 2016 photo, a pharmacist holds a package of EpiPens, an epinephrine autoinjector for the treatment of allergic reactions, in Sacramento, Calif. Price hikes for the emergency medicine have made its maker, Mylan, the latest target for patients and politicians infuriated by soaring drug prices.
“It’s wrong when drug companies put profits ahead of patients, raising prices without justifying the value behind them”, Clinton said in a statement. He noted the costs can also be passed on to taxpayers when children are covered by Medicaid or other government programs. “The only explanation for Mylan raising the price by nearly six times since 2008 is that the company values profits more than the lives of millions of Americans”.
A Mylan spokeswoman said Wednesday that the company has reached out to every lawmaker who has sent them a letter on the pricing issue and looks forward to meeting with them and responding to their questions. About half of the company’s $189 million increase in second-quarter revenue from the same period previous year probably came from selling more EpiPens at higher prices. Mylan declined to comment on the price increases coinciding with legislation to encourage EpiPen use.
Clinton’s view was echoed by Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Elijah Cummings, who said Mylan’s move is nothing but a public relations stunt that does nothing to help the majority of patients who need the drug.
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“My insurance doesn’t cover the full cost, I have a high copay and they won’t cover the office visit unless I’ve hit my high out of pocket expenses”, Barber said.
