The company has introduced a patient assistance program, which has allowed it to sharply increase prices while passing the cost of these increases onto insurance companies and ultimately to consumers, while also announcing that it will offer an authorized generic EpiPen for about $300. “People need to have not only the access but the price points”.
Advertisement
The maker of EpiPen tried to cool Congress’ ire over the skyrocketing cost of its life-saving injector by offering discounts and an in-house generic version, but lawmakers only appear to be turning up the heat. The company also said last week that merely reducing the list price of the drug would not necessarily mean that patients would pay less, since the out-of-pocket costs for patients are set by pharmacy benefit managers and insurers.
The senators asked for details on the effectiveness of Mylan’s savings card program, and the legality of using one for those covered under Medicare and Medicaid.
Last week, the company announced steps to increase the financial assistance for the branded EpiPen, both for commercially insured and uninsured patients. But the senators who signed the letter said the generic device still costs $300, three times more than the branded EpiPen did in 2007.
PhRMA, as the main trade association of the pharmaceutical industry, has sought to highlight the cost of R&D for new products and the price of innovation in response to the widespread criticism of the industry. The company said almost 80 percent of patients with health insurance paid nothing extra for their EpiPens.
“I think basically anything we can do to get prescription drug prices down-I think all prescription drug prices are extremely high”, Manchin said.
The generic version of EpiPen, “will be identical to the branded product, including device functionality and drug formulation”, Mylan said in a statement.
“It makes me livid that this company has taken advantage of lots of kids and families who can’t afford $600 and plus for an EpiPen”, said Hughes.
Shares of Mylan rose 19 cents to $43.22 in trading Monday, while broader indexes rose.
Advertisement
Unlike other countries, the US doesn’t regulate medicine prices, so drugmakers may charge as much as they want. Martin Shkreli and executives from the company he once lead, Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, and executives from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. faced congressional committees earlier this year to answer questions about why the companies bought the rights to older drugs that lacked competition and then raised the prices.
