New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has commenced an investigation into Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., (MYL), the maker of EpiPens, saying that the company may have inserted anticompetitive terms into its EpiPen sales contracts with numerous local school system.
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EpiPen is the leading epinephrine autoinjector, which is used to treat someone who experiences a severe allergic reaction. “This command of the market has given Mylan the unbridled ability to increase the price of the two-pack EpiPen”, they wrote. The drugmaker says it will launch a generic version that will cost $300. Mylan’s program offered EpiPens to schools for free or at a discounted rate, which in 2015 was a little more than $100.
Mylan has raised the US price of EpiPen, which is used to treat life-threatening allergies, from less than $100 when it acquired the product in 2007 to more than $600, drawing criticism from parents, consumer groups and USA politicians.
Mylan has been criticized – including by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton – for sharp price increases for EpiPens, often carried by people with life-threatening allergies.
Speaking to Bloomberg News, Manchin praised his daughter, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch, as “compassionate” and “generous”.
A Mylan spokeswoman, Nina Devlin, had no immediate comment.
Mylan is due to send answers to questions posed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa this week, as well as brief congressional staff for the Senate Special Committee on Aging.
Since 2012, Mylan has given away more than 700,000 free EpiPen’s to schools under a program that allows them to receive four free auto-injectors.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, said medical costs need to be better negotiated for those relying on Medicare and other government programs.
Aging Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins of ME said in an interview Tuesday she wasn’t sure a hearing would be necessary.
Mylan Pharmaceuticals has responded to heavy pressure for its alleged price-gouging in a way that does not resolve the problem.
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U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, says the maker of the allergy drug EpiPen may owe taxpayers a lot of money for failing to reimburse Medicaid properly over the past decade.
