The average wholesale price of EpiPen has increased by 500% since 2009, while the price that insurers and employers pay to Mylan is up 150% over that period.
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Those who rely on government-paid programs will not be eligible for the copay assistance.
She blames the high prices on a failing health care system.
Manchin said he shares concerns about “the skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs”. Although families have been forced to pay a huge bill for this life-saving drug, the price increase seems to be paying off for Bresch. “The bubble is going to burst”, Bresch said. Richard Blumenthal, (D) CT.
“This step seems like a PR fix more than a real remedy, masking an exorbitant and callous price hike”, he said.
Bresch said the company has given out 700,000 free EpiPens to 65,000 schools across the U.S. The company is working toward having 30 states require EpiPens in restaurants and hotels in order to help save lives.
It also thrust Mylan into the pending United States political contest, with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Wednesday calling the company’s most recent price hike “outrageous” as it occurred just as allergic children prepared to return to school. It’s hard to believe that the small device filled with epinephrine only cost $57 back in 2007, according to Bloomberg News. But consumers have found EpiPens easy to carry and use.
“Mylan should not offer after-the-fact discounts only for a select few – it should reverse its massive price increases across the board immediately, ” Maryland’s Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings, who has been investigating rising drug prices, said in a statement. And Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Mylan has violated antitrust laws in its marketing of the EpiPen. “Patients all over the United States rely on these products, including my own daughter”.
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Last year, Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli caused outrage after raising the price of a life-saving AIDS drug from $13.50 a pill to $750 after acquiring its marketing rights from Impax Laboratories. “It’s not the standard brand as a result it’s not as popular or widely used as EpiPen, but it works just as well”, he said. Inside the EpiPen is a needle that administers the antidote.
