We just hope they come through, and that they find ways to make the EpiPen even more affordable, as $300 every time the product runs out or goes bad just isn’t doable for many American families.
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How much an individual pays depends on insurance coverage.
Meanwhile, actress Sarah Jessica Parker, whose son has severe nut allergies, wrote on Instagram that she’s cut ties with Mylan and is “disappointed, saddened and deeply concerned” over EpiPen’s price. She said insurers, pharmacies, prescription benefit managers and distributors divvy up the rest. Turing’s former CEO Martin Shkreli became the poster child of pharmaceutical-industry greed last fall for hiking the price of a life-saving drug, Daraprim, by more than 5,000 percent. It’s also doubling eligibility for the patient assistance program to help uninsured or underinsured patients. Multiple lawmakers and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke out against the fivefold increase in the cost of an EpiPen since 2008. In other words, the person who is insured is required to pay more money out of pocket before the insurance payments kick in. Bresch said Thursday that Mylan gets $274 for a two-dose EpiPen package. She joined a large number of parents, educators, doctors, and general health and safety advocates who have been calling out Mylan for their actions, and it looks as if they may have had something of an impact. She even made it on Fortune Magazine’s list of the “50 Most Powerful Women In Business” in 2014.
“If they touch where someone else has been eating pizza, they’re going to break out in hives, eyes swell shut, that kind of thing”, said Connell.
Heather Bresch is the 47-year old chief executive of the generic pharmaceutical giant Mylan.
Manchin said he shares concerns about “the skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs”.
Bresch blamed the price hike on a greater issue within the health care industry, and implored “all involved” to “take steps to meaningfully address the US health care crisis”.
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“I was both shocked and dismayed to discover that the price of your product, which has not been improved upon in any obvious or significant way, has skyrocketed by 480 percent since 2009”, Blumenthal said in the letter.
