Turing’s former CEO Martin Shkreli became the poster child of pharmaceutical-industry greed last fall for hiking the price of a life-saving drug, Daraprim, by more than 5,000 percent.
Advertisement
Under mounting pressure, pharmaceutical company Mylan says it will slash the costs of emergency EpiPens for some patients in the US.
Here’s a quick look at the controversy over the EpiPen.
The EpiPen is an injection device that contains a measured dose of the chemical epinephrine.
Questions to a company spokeswoman about how the cards would be distributed and whether there would be any time limit on how long they could be used were not immediately answered.
Did Mylan come up with the idea for the pen?
Millions of Americans rely on EpiPens every year.
Mylan’s announcement follows several days in which the company has been heavily criticized for alleged price gouging.
Why did the cost go up?
“Raise it more and give a bigger coupon and then they’re the hero bringing a bigger coupon in”, Hill said, “But ultimately they still raised the price”. “Our health care is in a crisis”, she said.
What kind of price hikes have there been with EpiPen?
Bresch took to Twitter and the media on August 26, 2016, to defend her company and to defend her $19 million dollar a year salary. Prices recently increased to up to $600 for two. So to Mylan, he said this: “If you jack up the price by 500 percent, you’re damn right the premium will go up”. But she added that “it’s wrong when drug companies put profits ahead of patients, raising prices without justifying the value behind them”. “I explain to them that their lives cost more”, said Nguyen.
The maker of EpiPens announced Thursday that it is reducing the price of the device following an uproar in Washington over the cost of the treatment for serious allergic reactions. The company now says it will provide instant saving cards worth $300 to patients who face high costs.
Mylan also said it would double the income level at which families are eligible for assistance in purchasing the medication to 400% of the federal poverty level, which stands at $24,300 for a family of four.
Is Congress doing anything about it? .
Advertisement
But there is no competition to the EpiPen. Both Beloit and Rockford School Districts say students with allergic reactions should still carry their own Epipens just in case.
