Lawmakers in turn described the actions as “sickening”, “disgusting” and showing “blatant disrespect” for American families who can no longer afford the life-saving device for children susceptible to severe allergic reactions.
Advertisement
Outraged Republican and Democratic lawmakers overnight grilled the head of pharmaceutical company Mylan about the significant cost increase of its life-saving EpiPens and the profits for a company with sales in excess of $US11 billion $NZ15 billion. However, the availability of alternatives may not be enough – the introduction of Auvi-Q in 2013 did not lead to lower prices.
Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., later asked Bresch what her salary was.
“If it was not for an EpiPen, I would have died at a young age”, said junior marketing major Lacey Alleruzzo, adding that her allergy to bees relies on the use of an EpiPen.
Bresch on Wednesday called the article “completely inaccurate”, saying “it was a very cheap shot to bring my mother into this”.
“Many people incorrectly assume we make $600 off each EpiPen. This is simply not true”.
She says the company makes about $50 per pen after rebates, fees, materials and other costs are subtracted.
Hauling pharmaceutical executives before congressional committees to testify about increasing prices has become somewhat of a ritual.
The top line cost of an EpiPen two-pack ballooned from about $100 to $608 over the past decade.
“This unprecedented move is the fastest and most direct way to reduce the price for all patients”, she said. Prices range from $69 in the United Kingdom to $210 in Germany.
The House committee is not the only group of officials demanding answers from Bresch.
In answering committee questions ahead of the hearing, Mylan said it had $912 million in net revenue from EpiPens a year ago and spent $97 million on marketing, according to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D., Md.). That brought in sales of almost $US1.7 billion ($NZ2.3 billion) for Mylan, though the company says it receives about $1.1 billion ($NZ1.5 billion) after rebates and fees paid to insurers, distributors and other health care businesses. Those two CEOs, Cummings said, had “absolutely no remorse, none!”
Lawmakers are trying to determine whether Mylan made more money on EpiPen than warranted from state Medicaid programs by having it classified as a generic product, resulting in much smaller rebates to the government health plans.
Rep. Blake Farenthold, a Corpus Christi Republican, focused much of his questioning on the complexity of pharmaceutical pricing.
Mylan CEO Heather Bresch said there’s a “misconception about our profits” from EpiPen, according to a copy of her prepared remarks to be delivered when the House Oversight committee meets at 2 p.m. Patients are “paying higher out of pocket costs”, she said.
Advertisement
The company has also offered coupon cards and has doubled the limit for eligibility for its patient assistance program. Again, this failed to impress the committee. These companies have either jacked up the retail list price of drugs that have always been on the market after acquiring their patents, which is what Mylan did with EpiPen, or have imposed sky-high prices on newly developed, highly-effective drugs such as Gilead Sciences’ hepatitis-C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni, which retail for roughly $1,000 per pill, or $84,000 for a course of treatment. “That’s what Martin Shkreli did, that’s what Valeant did, and that’s what Mylan is doing”, Cummings said. She instead suggested a planned generic version the company will market at $300.
