If you want to come to Washington, if you want to come to the state capitols and lobby us to make us buy your stuff, this is what you get.
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EpiPens deliver an emergency dose of epinephrine when people suffer risky allergic reactions to anything from bee stings to peanuts.
Mylan has become ground zero for the debate over rising drug prices in light of revelations that the company has hiked prices for the EpiPen by more than 500 percent since 2007 when it acquired the treatment.
Bresch said the company sold approximately four million two-packs in the last 12 months. That might sound like a lot, but as Bresch put it when a congressman mentioned that she was “doing pretty good”, her salary is just about “in the middle” compared to other pharma CEOs.
Bresch claimed Mylan responded appropriately to the criticism by offering an authorized generic version of EpiPen taking the current price of $608 for two doses down to $300.
But those moves hardly satisfied parents of children with acute food allergies, who often have to purchases multiple pairs of the devices and renew them each year.
“Here we are again, and my guess is if it’s happening in these two instances, it’s probably happening in others”, Chaffetz said during the hours-long hearing. “We believe it was a fair price, and we now just lowered it by half”, she said, referring to the authorized generic. Bresch¿s prepared testimony was released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ahead of her September 21 appearance before the panel.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The head of pharmaceutical company Mylan is defending the cost for life-saving EpiPens, signaling the company has no plans to lower prices despite a public outcry and questions from skeptical lawmakers.
“To have companies like yours take advantage of the situation, take advantage of these people who are really in need of this medication, I think it speaks to something that we are better than that”, Rep. After acquiring the injectors in late 2007, Mylan has raised the price 17 times by a total of 548%. It’s still not available to pharmacies, leaving patients with few options.
Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) scolded Bresch as getting what she deserved during the combative hearing. According to Bresch, the company’s profit after costs is 50 dollars per EpiPen. But he added that he did not understand why the company had increased its marketing expenses so significantly.
Bresch gave $53,000 to her father’s campaigns in his Senate special election campaign in 2010 and his campaign for a full term in 2012, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Bresch, the daughter of Democratic West Virginia Sen.
In testimony for Congress, CEO Heather Bresch says she believes Mylan has struck a balance between price and access to the drug.
Questions arose about Tuesday’s USA Today article in which Bresch’s mother, former state Board of Education member Gayle Manchin, pushed the use of EpiPens at schools nationwide when she was leading a national school board group. Bresch pushed back on the story in the hearing, describing it as a “cheap shot”.
Lawmakers did ask Throckmorton about other epinephrine auto-injector products in the queue for FDA approval. The categorization of prescription drugs as generics instead of branded drugs has real financial impacts on the MDRP.
Earlier this month, NY state’s attorney general Eric Schneiderman launched an investigation of Mylan with an eye to possible anti-competitive practices by the pharmaceutical giant in the sale of EpiPen to local school systems.
Earlier, New York state’s attorney general launched a probe into Mylan’s contracts with school systems to purchase EpiPens, which may have terms created to keep out competition.
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Every company that participates in the Medicaid rebate program pays 13 percent in rebates back to the states on generic drug prices. Rep. Lloyd Doggett from Austin chairs a House Democratic task force created past year to focus on the topic.
