While he said he wouldn’t “specifically second-guess the pricing strategy or the business practices”, of any one company, Earnest said the price hike “raises significant questions, even moral questions, in the minds of a lot of people”.
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The American Medical Association urged the maker of the EpiPen, a life-saving device that counteracts severe allergies, to drop its price Wednesday as public outrage mounted over a soaring cost hike.
The prices insurers and employers negotiate with Mylan are up about 150% since 2009, according to Rx Savings Solutions, and 15% since May.
He cited the cost to parents whose children need them and also to schools that keep the EpiPens on hand.
Jackie Davis of Newport News, Va., and her husband, Cory, recently moved from health coverage through the military, which covered all costs for their son Michael’s EpiPens and asthma inhalers, to a commercial plan with a $6,000 deductible. With their insurance, they’re still very affordable.
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.
Mylan defends its skyrocketing prices by noting in a statement it has given away about 700,000 EpiPens to schools since 2013 and provides coupons that cover the cost of co-payments for most consumers who have commercial insurance. His silence contrasted with a growing number of leaders crying foul on the ballooning prices, including fellow senators and the presidential candidate Manchin has endorsed, Hillary Clinton.
Twelve Mylan drugs increased in price by more than 100%, including a 542% change for 300 milligram capsules of a gallstone remedy called ursodiol.
“While the price is increasing, the other issue now is that the health insurance plans have now put more and more responsibility on the patient”, said Parikh, who also serves as Levin’s doctor.
In his letter Grassley says he has spoken to those purchasing EpiPens and they say they’re now paying over $500 per pen. It reported second quarter net income of $168.4 million.
“There does not appear to be any justification for the continual price increases of EpiPen”, she said in a letter to the FTC.
Meanwhile, epinephrine, which can be purchased alone, costs just a few dollars. Another product, Adrenaclick, is about $150 cheaper than the EpiPen. That last increase was 15% in May.
EpiPen auto-injection epinephrine pens manufactured by Mylan NV pharmaceutical company for use by severe allergy sufferers are seen in Washington, U.S., August 24, 2016. Senator Amy Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the committee’s antitrust subcommittee, called for an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. When Michael Davis was 2, he started vomiting and his throat started closing up in an ambulance after he ate yogurt for the first time. “Some patients and physicians are resorting to buying epinephrine ampoules and filling their own syringes”, said Dr. Thomas Casale, a professor of medicine at the University of South Florida and executive vice president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI). She found out the price had jumped from about $350 to $734.99.
Ms. Bresch describes EpiPen as her “baby”, once a relatively unknown product that she turned into a blockbuster one.
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Adam Linderman of Webster, N.Y., learned he was allergic to bee stings a year ago but says he may just go without an EpiPen and “hope for the best”.
