Mylan says its generic epinephrine auto injector will cost patients $300 for a two-pack, which is about half the cost of its EpiPen.
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It’s the oldest negotiating trick in the book: If you come off the starting block with an outlandish offer, any capitulation feels comparatively reasonable.
On Thursday, the company said it would offer savings cards and double patient eligibility for assistance, such that a family of 4 with an annual income of almost $100,000 would pay nothing out of pocket for an injector. Lawmakers and media have lashed out against the more-than-500% price increase it has applied on EpiPen since 2007 from around $50 per pen to a little more than $600 for a two-pack supply. He said the move was a way to cut out-of-pocket costs for patients while minimizing the impact on the company, and predicted the program would “only modestly” impact revenue. Since acquiring the rights to the drug injector in 2007, Mylan steadily increased the list price almost six-fold, from roughly $100 to $600 for a packet of two EpiPens.
“For brand companies, authorized generics are a long-term strategy created to debilitate our industry because they understand this revenue very importantly generates and enables us to further challenge questionable patents in their pipeline”, Bresch said in 2006.
The company has said that it recoups less than half of EpiPen’s list price because pharmacy benefit managers, which often require discounted prices or rebates from drugmakers, are involved, along with insurers and others. Patients can use the savings cards on up to six two-packs a year.
This is good news for insurance companies and their customers, who end up shouldering the cost of rising drug prices through rising premiums, deductibles, co-pays, and co-insurance.
The testimony was given before Mylan even had the rights to the EpiPen, and the situation is a bit different, since there are no generic EpiPens already approved and on the market – although there are some in the works.
Public Citizen, a patient advocacy group, noted that not everyone will get access to the generic, making it an incomplete solution to the high price – similar to the critique leveled at the coupons and patient assistance. “Jury is still out”.
Following outcry from the public and government officials, Mylan said the new generic device would be available to the public in a few weeks and be “identical to the existing product”, according to The New York Times.
The maker of the EpiPen will start selling a generic version in the wake of criticism about steep price increases. Does the whole “Martin Shkreli Turing Pharmaceuticals” price gouging scandal not ring a bell?
Mylan had hiked the price of EpiPen to maximize profits in anticipation of Teva’s competitor, Udow-Phillips said. Since Mylan basically has a monopoly on epinephrine injection devices upheld by the FDA, the move to provide a generic version is unusual.
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Drugs that are listed in those databases enjoy special protections. In some cases, insurance companies are required by law to pay for them and can not charge customers co-pays to access them. “These are measures that Mylan is taking to lower the price, but notice it has not lowered the list price of the drug at all”.
