Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton also called for the EpiPen price to come down, noting that millions of people rely on the epinephrine injectors, which must be replaced every 12-18 months.
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Richard Blumenthal backed legislation that encouraged schools to stock the auto-injector that delivers a drug that counters the effects of a potentially fatal allergic reaction. During the same timeframe, EpiPen prices rose from $56.64 to $317.82, a staggering 461 percent increase. She reincorporated her USA -based drug company in the Netherlands, which cut its tax liability.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), the chair and ranking Democrat of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, sent a letter to Mylan chief executive Heather Bresch seeking information on the company’s pricing practices. That’s an increase of more than 500%.
Senators Susan Collins of ME and Claire McCaskill of Missouri also requested pricing information from the manufacturer, Mylan NV, within two weeks. “I feel like if it’s covering the cost of manufacture, it is what it is”, she said. It touted efforts to provide EpiPen injectors in schools, and a “savings card” that it said enabled 80 percent of commercially-insured patients to obtain EpiPens with no out-of-pocket costs.
Recent changes in health insurance have resulted in higher deductible costs for many families, the company said.
“I am deeply concerned by this significant price increase for a product that has been on the market for more than three decades, and by Mylan’s failure to publicly explain the recent cost increase, which places a significant burden on parents, schools, and other purchasers of the EpiPen”, Sen. “The high cost has also caused some first responders to consider making their own kits with epinephrine vials and syringes”.
Shares wavered in thin but volatile trading in Asia on Thursday, following a bleak day on Wall Street led by declines in health-care stocks as outrage mounts over steep price hikes for Mylan’s EpiPens. “This current and ongoing shift has presented new challenges for consumers, and now they are bearing more of the cost” of the devices, the statement said.
Mylan did have one defender, however: former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli.
“There’s no denying they raised the price a lot and make more money on this product now than any other product they sell”, said Wells Fargo analyst David Maris.
Clinton, in a statement issued on August 24, said, “Mylan Pharmaceuticals has increased the price of EpiPens by more than 400 percent”.
“I will observe, however, that pharmaceutical companies that often try to portray themselves as the inventors of life-saving medication often do real damage to their reputation by being greedy and jacking up prices in a way that victimizes”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing.
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Meanwhile, several senators on Wednesday asked the Food and Drug Administration about its approval process for generic equivalents that might help increase competition and lower prices.
