The drubbing taken by Mylan NV Chief Executive Heather Bresch on Wednesday at the hands of lawmakers over EpiPen price hikes has been described as a “beating”, “contentious” and a display of “grandstanding, misunderstanding and speeches”.
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Thus, “the generic will have real impact on Mylan EpiPen revenue and profits”, Gal said, predicting the generic’s launch affecting about half of EpiPen profits, or about 10% of Mylan overall profits. She stated that she understood there was considerable skepticism and concern about pricing and added that many people mistakenly assume that the company profits $600 from selling a unit of EpiPen.
Public records show the CEO made about $2.5 million as Mylan’s president in 2007.
Lawmakers from both the parties assailed her over the dramatic price increase from $100 for a pair in 2009 to a staggering $608 today.
How many schools paid for EpiPens? .
Duncan, like other Republicans, said the free market is not working in this case because Mylan has a virtual monopoly over auto-injected epinephrine. “It’s not optional to someone who has severe allergic reactions to a variety of things”, committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, lectured Bresch.
But a group of pharma hackers known as “The Four Thieves Vinegar Collective” say they have made an epinephrine autoinjector costing just over $30 and in a blogpost are encouraging patients in need of this life-saving drug to construct the delivery device themselves. “If your loved one needs this, it better darn well be in your backpack”.
The controversy, meanwhile, has dragged in West Virginia’s former first family.
Saying the article was “inaccurate”, Bresch said it was a “very cheap shot to bring my mother into this”.
“The misconception about our profits is understandable, and at least partly due to the complex environment in which pharmaceutical prices are determined”, Bresch said in her prepared testimony. “I would think you would know”.
Manchin spokesman Jonathan Kott declined to comment further on Wednesday and did not respond when asked if Manchin was watching his daughter’s questioning.
Bresch gave $53,000 to her father’s campaigns in his Senate special election campaign in 2010 and his campaign for a full term in 2012, according to the Federal Election Commission.
The latest pricing scandal to hit the pharmaceutical industry surrounds the life-saving allergy drug-device product EpiPen. But her defense was greeted warily by members of Congress, who grilled her on several topics, including EpiPen’s profits and her salary increases as head of Mylan.
“After Mylan takes our punches they’ll fly back to their mansions in their private jets and laugh all the way to the bank”, Cummings said at the hearing. “Meanwhile, our constituents file for bankruptcy and watch their children get sicker or die”. She did not apologize to lawmakers for the treatment’s high price.
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Republican Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee, a physician, told Bresch that she was “trying to make us feel good” about the generic version and other programs, but that he doesn’t feel good about it.
