Since 2007, the cost of EpiPens has gone up 500 percent.
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Her 4-year-old and 6-year-old have milk, egg and peanut allergies between the two of them. There used to be other similar injectors on the market, but one was recalled and another didn’t get FDA approval.
Mylan on Thursday said it would issue coupons for families to take $300 off the consumer price of an EpiPen, but the company said nothing about changing the EpiPen’s base price paid by insurance companies. What makes the price tag harder to swallow is the fact the drug isn’t a one time purchase.
Bresch has blamed the EpiPen price hike on Obamacare, citing employers’ increasing deductibles, reports Fortune magazine, and said that it isn’t an “expensive product” compared to others, with its wholesale cost at $600.
Ms. Bresch said that facts are inconvenient to headlines and explained Mylan only receives $274 for a two-pack of EpiPens listed at $608, while insurers and pharmacies take more than half.
Mylan announced Thursday that it was doubling the eligibility for its patient assistance program to people with incomes four times higher than the federal poverty level.
The doctors who prescribe the life-saving drug, say there’s nothing they can do about it.
Also feeding the controversy Heather Bresch’s salary which has increased from more than $2 million a year to almost $19 million since Mylan acquired the Epipen in 2007.
While some insurance companies cover the cost of the pen, the uninsured and those with high deductible health plans pay the full $600 out-of-pocket cost, something Mylan is hoping to end with the 50 percent-off savings card. But for parents in Southwest Louisiana, they have already had to shell out several hundred dollars for their children’s EpiPens as a new school year began earlier this month.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter to Mylan demanding an explanation for the increase. “The system wasn’t built for that”, said Bresch. “Wherever he goes, the EpiPen has to go”.
Even with insurance coverage, Kornrumph said she couldn’t afford the potentially life-saving drug. The program, launched in August 2012, has provided more than 700,000 free epinephrine auto-injectors and educational resources to more than 65,000 schools nationwide to help them be prepared for anaphylaxis events among students.
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Mylan said that out of the $US608 list price for EpiPen, it gets only $US274.
