The American Medical Association, which represents almost a quarter of a million doctors, also knocked Mylan for raising the price even though the product is “unchanged” since 2009.
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A two-pack of EpiPens has gone from $100 in 2009 to more than $600 now.
Mylan told Stat that the provision restricting school purchasing has since been discontinued, but did not say when it was halted. The drug-maker also said it will expand the group of patients eligible for financial assistance and open a pathway to sell its EpiPens directly to consumers. A steep rise in the price of EpiPens-nearly 700 percent in the past six years-has left millions of Americans struggling to afford the life-saving devices.
“This step is much more a PR fix more than a real remedy”, Sen.
“As a mother, I can assure you the last thing that we would ever want is no one to have their Epipen due to price”, said Heather Breech, CEO of Mylan.
Mylan responded by announcing efforts on Thursday to make EpiPen more affordable for some patients.
Clinton frequently said during the primary that she would fight pharmaceutical companies – part of an attempt to counter criticism that she was too closely tied to the insurance industry. Her comments helped push down biotech stocks.
But Mylan’s announcement is a mere discount – not an outright rollback of EpiPen’s list price.
On Wednesday, Republican Senator Susan Collins and Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill requested that Mylan provide a briefing to explain the price change.
“This effectively reduces their out-of-pocket cost exposure by 50 percent”, Mylan states. An additional $334 goes to pharmacy benefit managers, insurers, wholesalers and pharmacy retailers. In March, Clinton released a campaign ad vowing to target the company.
If patients are so turned off by the price that they switch to a generic or forgo the medication altogether, the company gets nothing. He has since stepped down as CEO of Turing.
Other prominent members of the community also voiced concern over the recent EpiPen outrage, including Minnesota Senator, Amy Klobuchar, whose daughter carries the emergency medical device in the event of a life-threatening allergic reaction.
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In her statement, SJP rightly accused the company of making the EpiPen cost prohibitive to “countless people”.
