Mylan, the drug manufacturing company behind the recent EpiPen outrage, has announced its plan to reduce the cost of the medical device amidst a backlash of public scorn.
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Klobuchar was one of a bi-partisan group of senators who this week also called on the Food and Drug Administration to answer questions on its process for approving alternatives to the EpiPen, which could help drive down prices.
After one EpiPen competitor was pulled from the market previous year, only one rival product is available, Adrenaclick, which carries a list price of $461. It has responded by offering rebates, and officials claimed prices can not drop.
People will eventually be able to order the injected medicine directly from the company, to lower their cost.
The announcement came Wednesday after Hillary Clinton publically criticized the company and the Federal Trade Commission threatened to launch an investigation into the drug maker’s possible violation of antitrust laws through price-hiking.
Saying she is “disappointed, saddened and deeply concerned” by price hikes for the EpiPen, actress Sarah Jessica Parker has cut ties with the company that makes the emergency allergy treatment. Journalists noted that Bresch’s father is a US senator. Parker was paid to participate in a Mylan campaign.
To Mylan CEO Heather Bresch, however, structural reforms are needed across the USA healthcare industry since the changes brought in by the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, has prompted employers to opt for high-deductible plans – the very reason patients are paying larger sums out of pocket.
“I explain to them that their lives cost more”, said Nguyen.
“There are kids dying and she wants to give us a coupon?” Many other drugmakers also routinely raise prices of their prescription drugs by 10 percent or more each year, and US legislation is needed to prevent such “price spikes”, he added.
For the last eight years, Jean Ford has kept an EpiPen on hand for her 21-year-old daughter, Miranda Mountain.
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Although her family doesn’t qualify for the discount, she says she’s happy it will help others. The CEO said the increase is due to the rising cost of healthcare.
