After its initial offer of vouchers for half off the pricey product were derided as too little, too late, the embattled pharmaceutical company announced on Monday that it would start making a generic EpiPen that will sell for $300 for a two-pack.
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Warren, Markey and other U.S. Senators who signed the letter contended that Mylan’s “near monopoly on the epinephrine auto-injector market” has allowed the company to increase prices beyond justifiable rises in manufacturing costs.
In a letter to Mylan CEO Heather Bresch, Brown requested answers to a series of questions on how the price hike has impacted access to EpiPens for OH consumers and how their corrective actions to date will effect consumers and taxpayers.
Mylan’s August 29 announcement of its plans to sell a generic version of the EpiPen at half the price didn’t quell the discontent in the U.S. Senate. Rival Adrenaclick carries a list price of $461, and there’s a generic version, but doctors typically prescribe EpiPen, originally launched in 1987, because it’s so well-known.
EpiPens are used in emergencies to stop potentially fatal allergic reactions to insect bites and stings, and foods like nuts and eggs.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, whose own daughter depends on the product, explained “They reach their expiration date in one year, so then you have to buy more”, and added that many people carry around expired EpiPens, hoping they will work.
There’s now little competition for EpiPen. In turn, those costs are eventually passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums, but the drug company is no longer in the spotlight.
Last week, Mylan offered more financial aid to patients getting EpiPens, including coupon cards covering up to $300 off patient copayments, triple the $100 discounts previously offered.
USA Today reported, quoting Marianne Udow-Phillips, director of the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation at the University of Michigan, “It’s highly unusual for a generic product to come out in this way”. They are asking Mylan to answer detailed questions by September 12.
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Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf about the lack of competition for auto-injection devices.
