USA lawmakers on Wednesday blasted steep price increases forMylan’s EpiPen emergency allergy treatment as they grilled the company’s Chief Executive Heather Bresch at a congressional hearing.
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Bresch said that although she regretted that some patients had trouble paying for the drug, lawmakers needed to recognize that Mylan had greatly increased access to the lifesaving device.
Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah, suggested a generic version would actually make more for Mylan because the company plans to sell it directly to customers.
Mylan has responded to the criticism by offering discounts more widely to families, and said it plans to launch a half-price version of EpiPen soon, a move Bresch said on Wednesday would cannibalize its brand-name product.
EpiPens are used in emergencies to stop anaphylaxis, the potentially fatal allergic reactions to insect bites and stings and foods like nuts and eggs. The company has particularly emphasized the risks posed to children, piggybacking off a legislative push to stock EpiPens in schools after a 7-year old died of an allergic reaction in Virginia.
But that explanation didn’t satisfy members of the House Oversight Committee, who shot back at Bresch’s numbers with their own: the hundreds of millions pocketed by Mylan’s top executives in recent years. According to Bresch, the company’s profit after costs is 50 dollars per EpiPen.
Bresch said the company makes only $50 in profit on each EpiPen.
“This is why we don’t believe you”, he said.
Congressman Elijah Cummings of Maryland is the ranking member on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Another popular topic was executive salary - Bresch’s work at Mylan earned her a cool $18 million last year, which this year earned her scorn from both sides of the aisle.
Her defense of Mylan’s pricing unleashed a barrage of comments from lawmakers, including one who said, “We don’t believe you”. “We’ve cut the wholesale acquisition cost in half”. In 2007, when Mylan bought the rights to EpiPen, she made $2.5 million. Several other committees also have called for investigations into the matter. These companies have either jacked up the retail list price of drugs that have always been on the market after acquiring their patents, which is what Mylan did with EpiPen, or have imposed sky-high prices on newly developed, highly-effective drugs such as Gilead Sciences’ hepatitis-C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni, which retail for roughly $1,000 per pill, or $84,000 for a course of treatment.
“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. “As of 2012, they are only selling two EpiPens together as a bundle, which also doubled the price”.
In the Senate, leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ investigations subcommittee said earlier this month that they have begun an inquiry into the company’s pricing and competition practices. Richard Blumenthal of CT and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota requesting that the Federal Trade Commission investigate whether Mylan violated federal antitrust laws to protect Epi-Pen from competition. The Aging Committee requested briefings on the issue, and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has written several letters to Mylan demanding answers.
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Lawmakers blasted the chief executive of the maker of EpiPens at a House hearing Wednesday, saying the company’s price hikes of more than 500% were stopping families from keeping their children safe.
