CEO Heather Bresch said Mylan will offer more financial assistance to help people pay their out-of-pocket costs – the piece that health insurance doesn’t cover.
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“I have patients who refuse to pick up the medication cause their co-pay is so high”.
The price has steadily increased since the company acquired the EpiPen in 2007 when the cost for two epi-pens was $93.88 (£75.68).
“The Epinephrine Auto-Injector is a vital part of our family’s healthcare, as it is for the many that are at risk”.
Parker had signed on to a campaign with Mylan to help bring attention to anaphylaxis and the importance of EpiPens. But as Stat reported last month, these EpiPens have increased in price 400 percent, a skyrocketed cost that is just not affordable for many patients.
On Wednesda Republican Senator Susan Collins and Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill requested that Mylan provide a briefing to explain the price change.
On Thursday, Bresch tried to defend Mylan’s price increase in an interview with CNBC by putting the onus back onto the health care industry at large.
While the middlemen, such as those who distribute the drugs and insure patients, are important topics to consider when looking at the pricing of drugs as a whole, it doesn’t matter so much in Mylan’s case, Grassley said. Earlier this year, Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. were called to answer questions from congressional committees over buying the rights to older drugs that lacked competition and raising the prices.
Mylan spokeswoman Nina Devlin did not respond to inquiries about Clinton’s criticism of the company.
“At the end of the day there may need to be stronger legal protections against these types of price gouging and profiteering at the expense of people who need a lifesaving drug where the company has a stranglehold on the market”, he says. “We recognize the significant burden on patients from continued, rising insurance premiums and being forced increasingly to pay the full list price for medicines at the pharmacy counter”. “She can keep her coupon”, Andy Palumbo said. “I look forward to reviewing their response in detail and working with my colleagues and all interested parties to lower the price of prescription drugs and to continue to improve our health care system”.
With drug companies in the USA refusing to rein in prices, the higher costs will translate into higher insurance premiums.
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Mylan, with its executive offices in Canonsburg, announced expanded eligibility in its patient-assistance program following backlash in the escalating price of the product.
