The White House on Wednesday said pharmaceutical firms risked damaging their reputations with big price hikes, but it sidestepped commenting directly on Mylan NV’s decision to raise the price of its severe allergy treatment drug EpiPen.
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In a previous statement, Mylan said the EpiPen’s price “has changed over time to better reflect important product features and the value the product provides”.
The incredible increase in the cost of EpiPens, auto-injectors that can stop life-threatening emergencies caused by allergic reactions, has hit home on Capitol Hill, where one Democratic senator whose daughter has allergies has called for action and another Democratic senator’s daughter is CEO of the company responsible for the price hike.
Since Clinton issued the statement Wednesday afternoon, the Biotechnology Index has fallen nearly 2%, while Mylan was down more than 5%.
Gilead Sciences Inc.GILD -1.19 % confronted congressional investigations after pricing its hepatitis C therapy Sovaldi at $1,000 a day, while more recent targets have included Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.VRX -2.12 % and Retrophin Inc.RTRX -3.30 % for triple-digit price increases on drugs they had just bought.
Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal of CT and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota addressed the price hike at press conferences alongside doctors and affected families Wednesday. The average cost was more than six times that in May, according to the Elsevier Clinical Solutions’ Gold Standard Drug Database.
“Something is very, very wrong when drug companies value their profits over the lives of their customers”, Sanders tweeted on Wednesday.
Clinton also criticized Turing Pharmaceuticals when public ire rose after it chose to raise the price of an antiviral medication commonly used by AIDS patients and pregnant women to $750 from $13.50 a tablet.
Mylan will expand already existing programs to help people with high out-of-pocket expenses, the drugmaker said Thursday in a statement. Instead, the company focused on insurance policies with high deductibles that shift costs to patients.
Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Richard Blumenthal of CT want the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Mylan for possible antitrust violations. It pointed out its savings programs for patients and free EpiPens for schools, with around half of USA schools participating.
Prices for the EpiPen, which delivers a potentially life-saving dose of epinephrine to those with severe allergies, have risen ten-fold since the Canonsburg generic drug maker acquired the product. “Therefore, I demand that Mylan take immediate action to lower the price of EpiPen’s for all Americans that rely on this product for their health and safety”.
Today, the cost of the drug is approximately $600 according to Good RX, which posts drug prices at pharmacies across the country.
The pharmaceutical company that distributes the EpiPen is also a Clinton Foundation donor.
Neither did Mylan nor Bresch’s father, Manchin, whose Senate colleagues are calling for hearings on the price of EpiPens, and one of whom, Sen.
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Mylan said it has provided 700,000 free EpiPens to schools and has given coupons to families who have trouble paying for the medication.
