Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton also weighed in on Tuesday, accusing Mylan of “taking advantage of its consumers”. But she added that “it’s wrong when drug companies put profits ahead of patients, raising prices without justifying the value behind them”.
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Clinton’s comments came after a bipartisan group of lawmakers called for investigations into the price increase of EpiPens, which are preloaded injections of epinephrine (adrenaline) that people use if they are having a unsafe allergic reaction that untreated could result in death. The current list price for a two-pack of the pens is more than $600, according to Truven Health Analytics, up from $93.88 in 2007.
Grassley is one of many members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, examining the pattern of price hikes that have tracked increased compensation for Mylan executives since it acquired EpiPen.
Klobuchar was joined at a news conference at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis on Wednesday by pediatricians who denounced the price increases as unconscionable. Senators Susan Collins of ME and Claire McCaskill of Missouri also requested pricing information from the manufacturer, Mylan NV, within two weeks. Bresch, the daughter of US Senator Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, has seen her own salary rise from $2 million to more than $18 million since the acquisition, according to NBC News.
In this Friday, July 8, 2016 photo, a pharmacist holds a package of EpiPens, an epinephrine autoinjector for the treatment of allergic reactions, in Sacramento, Calif. Price hikes for the emergency medicine have made its maker, Mylan, the latest target for patients and politicians infuriated by soaring drug prices. Schools and businesses also often keep them on hand in case a student or customer has an unexpected reaction. In a statement Monday, Mylan blamed rising health insurance deductibles for the increase in out-of-pocket payments for patients and emphasized its co-payment coupons and donations of 700,000 EpiPens to schools since 2013. The controversy came to light after reporters sought to confirm the details listed in a press release announcing Bresch’s promotion to COO of Mylan.
EpiPen sales now bring in around $1 billion of revenue a year for Mylan.
Mylan has had a near-monopoly in the space in the USA since Sanofi SA snynf withdrew a competing product past year.
Klobuchar also urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Mylan has used incentives and exclusionary contracts to deny an alternative product to hit the market.
There’s another factor in the equation: increased cost-sharing, and high deductible plans in particular, have exposed more consumers to price hikes that once would have been borne by payers.
Adjusting for inflation, the price of EpiPens have increased 450% since 2004.
A life-saving drug for severe allergy sufferers is costing families in the Valley and across the country a lot more money.
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Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal of CT and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota addressed the price hike at press conferences alongside doctors and affected families Wednesday. In Canada, EpiPen’s still cost around US$100.
