As NBC News previously reported, the sharp increases in price haven’t escaped the attention of parents anxious about paying for the drug in the back-to-school scramble, and Congress is starting to scrutinize Mylan’s pricing.
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“We are concerned that these drastic price increases could have a serious effect on the health and well-being of everyday Americans”, the letter says. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., talks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington.
“Our medical expenses will be high regardless, and I’ve come to accept that”, she said. She can’t afford even one two-pack now. But that can be hard in a panic or with a child who won’t hold still. “At the very least the insurance should cover it if it’s prescribed by your doctor as a life-saving thing”.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who is running for re-election, also wrote a letter to Mylan saying he was “concerned that the substantial price increase could limit access to a much-needed medication”, asking for an explanation by September 6, the day the Senate returns from its seven-week summer recess. “I knew they were expensive, but I seem to recall the price being around $350 a couple years ago”.
Hillary Clinton, whom Manchin has endorsed for president, called the increase “outrageous”. Malik stressed the giveaways and co-pay coupons.
Additionally, the company said it is doubling the eligibility for its patient assistance program, which eliminates out-of-pocket costs for uninsured and under-insured patients and families.
High deductible insurance plans are created to get employees to shop smarter and can elicit an outcry over prices that doesn’t happen when insurance covers them, says Annette Guarisco Fildes, CEO of the ERISA Industry Committee, which represents the largest employers.
Clinton said that pharmaceutical manufacturers should be required to explain significant price increases, and prove that any additional costs are linked to additional patient benefits and better value.
Klobuchar was joined at a news conference at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis on Monday by pediatricians who denounced the price increases as unconscionable. That is, until her husband changed jobs, and her $50 co-pay turned into a $440 outlay.
According to reports in the U.S., the businesswoman was behind the push to market them to the anxious parents of children with allergies.
“The cost of an EpiPen prescription has implications for the federal taxpayers as well”.
Excellus’ Chitre says insurers have more room to negotiate when there is more competition than exists with EpiPen.
And Bresch has also overseen her company’s increase in the price of EpiPens from $100 in 2008, to more than $600 for some customers today.
In the case of the EpiPen, there is another option-a little-known product called Adrenaclick. One cheaper product remains on the market, Adrenaclick.
As Mylan NV faces increasing criticism and scrutiny for the dramatic price hike of its EpiPen, two members of West Virginia’s Congressional delegation voiced their concerns to The Dominion Post. That last increase was 15% in May.
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Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, the chief Democrat on the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee whose daughter has food allergies, also called for investigation. “I will observe, however, that pharmaceutical companies that often try to portray themselves as the inventors of life-saving medication often do real damage to their reputation by being greedy and jacking up prices”. “People are dying and they’re getting sicker and sicker”.
