[Free Beacon] Mylan CEO Heather Bresch defended her $19 million dollar salary on CNBC Thursday amid criticism for hiking the price of the lifesaving EpiPen over 500 percent.
"I understand better than anyone that facts are inconvenient to headlines," Bresch said. "And why I’m here today and why I want to change this conversation, like I said, first of all, so everyone has access."
The EpiPen now costs between $600 and 700 for a standard two-pack, according to the Chicago Tribune, and the major price increase coincided with the time she acquired the rights to them and her own salary spiked:
According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Bresch’s total compensation went from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068 from 2007 to 2015. That’s a striking 671 percent increase. That period coincides with the time when Mylan acquired the rights to EpiPens and steadily hiked the average wholesale price from about $55 to $320.
Bresch is the daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.). Colleagues of Manchin have called for investigations and for Bresch to sit for a hearing on her company’s pricing strategy.
"I am aware of the questions my colleagues and many parents are asking, and frankly, I share their concerns about the skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs," Manchin said in a statement.
Bresch defended the price increase, saying that over the past eight years that every person who has needed an EpiPen has received one. Mylan announced Thursday that it will provide a rebate card worth up to $300 for those who paid the full price of the device out-of-pocket, cutting the price by 50 percent.
"As the health insurance environment has evolved, driven by the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, patients and families enrolled in high-deductible health insurance plans, who are uninsured, or who pay cash at the pharmacy, have faced higher costs for their medicine," Mylan said in a statement.
#1
Graduates from College in 1991. Dad get's her a job in 1992 with Mylan. Twentyfive years later she's making $19m per year. Is this a great country or what? I wonder how the other ladies down in the Mylan QC department are doing these days ?
At a WVU basketball game in 1992, Bresch's father mentioned his daughter's job search to Mylan CEO Milan Puskar. The company soon thereafter offered her a low-level position in the quality control department of a factory in Morgantown. According to Bresch, she had misgivings about the offer. Her father said she should "absolutely take it" and try for a year. She took his advice, and started as a clerk, typing labels. She received frequent promotions during the following years, "working hard and learning the industry inside out". Link to bio.
#2
How long have EpiPens been around. And there's no generic? Is it a time thing or is it political? Say what you want about euro style health care at least this kind of shit doesn't happen
#3
FDA stifles competition for these, Cheaderhead.
Follow the money.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/26/2016 10:13 Comments ||
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#4
Hey! Why should trunks be the only ones to get rich?
On the other hand, this is also a redistribution of income deal -
rebate card worth up to $300 for those who paid the full price of the device out-of-pocket, cutting the price by 50 percent
for the favored special people, (if your name is on our list, see?) full price to the rest of us dweebs.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/26/2016 13:13 Comments ||
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#5
There's only three types that I know of and the doctors are not fans of the non-brand Epipens. I have them and if the doctor didn't have something that makes them free, they'd cost me $700. Considering they cost less than $4 to make, this is definite price gouging.
[Daily Caller] Sen. Chuck Grassley is not happy that the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Inspector General can’t figure out how many felony fugitives live in federally-funded public housing, so he’s told the watchdog to do whatever it takes to get the answer. The Surprise Meter has little to do with the occupants, it's that anyone would suggest something might actually be done about them.
"It is troubling that the full number of wanted fugitive felons living in public housing remains unknown, unexplained, undocumented and unjustified," the Iowa Republican wrote in a letter to HUD Inspector General (IG) David Montoya Wednesday. "Tenants deserve to know if a wanted fugitive felon is living in the same housing project."
So, Grassley wants the HUD IG to do "a thorough, nationwide investigation into the number of wanted fugitive felons living in public housing and the adequacy of controls in place to prevent that from occurring. The American people need assurance that HUD is enforcing the law and ensuring the safety and security of public housing tenants."
Grassley is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a long-time congressional advocate on behalf of the more than 70 federal watchdogs whose sole job is to expose waste, fraud and mis-management in the executive branch bureaucracy. May I suggest the 'tracking down' begin at the federally owned property found at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500
#1
Next thing you know they won't want them to vote! Those damn Republicans
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/26/2016 10:42 Comments ||
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#2
Shouldn't the Feds be tracking down all fugitive felons no matter where they are? I mean they are felons, they are likely to lie on their rental applications no matter where they decide to live.
#4
Not considering the problem crated since the 90s of making everything a felony (yes a bit of an exaggeration, but do a couple DWIs and you are a felon as an example)
#7
Ask any kid in public hell and they could tell you who the felons and fugitives are.
The trick is to:
A) Protect the informant(good luck with that in this era awesome cybersecurity.
B) Actually do something about the felons.
I'm sure the fact that Chuck "I've been in Washington for more than forty years and I am SHOCKED at stuff!" Grassley is up for re-election has nothing to do with this.
#8
Instead of the three strikes and you get life, it should be three strikes and a gas chamber. It's sad but the police know who the career criminals are. Time for them to be removed from the board legally. Think the founders would have tolerated criminals with rap sheets like this? Nope.
#9
In the founding fathers time, they couldn't afford warehousing dangerous people. Felons usually hung. At least the removal of rights (vote, bear arms, et al) is in line with dead people (less Chicago).
#10
To crackers, a new Mount St. Helens;
For Democrats, harmless "rebellions."
Obama, so smarmy:
"A pen... and an army
Of grateful, high-melanin felons."
[USA Today] WILMINGTON, Del. -- Tina Werner died completing her bucket list. The 59-year-old Felton woman was standing on the fourth platform at Go Ape, an outdoor zip-lining adventure course in Lums Pond State Park, when she lost her footing Wednesday and fell about 35 feet to the ground below, Delaware State Police said. Go Ape said in a statement Thursday that witnesses say she "unfortunately disconnected herself from the safety system" on the final platform. The company stressed that she received proper training on how to remain attached to the safety system. Police have not said whether Werner was properly attached to the high-ropes adventure course, made up of "a series of zip lines, Tarzan swings, ...
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Egypt’s Minister of Supply Khaled Hanafi has resigned amid the highest-profile corruption case since President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi came to power in 2014.
Hanafi’s resignation is the most senior-level fallout from a probe into whether millions of dollars intended to subsidise farmers were used to purchase wheat that did not exist.
Egypt’s supply ministry is in charge of a massive food subsidy programme and the main state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC).
Parliamentarians who formed a fact-finding commission to investigate the fraud have said upwards of 2 million tonnes, or 40 per cent of the locally procured crop, may be missing.
The general prosecutor has ordered arrests, travel bans, and asset freezes for several private silo owners and others allegedly involved in the scandal.
"Experience has proven that being in a position of authority is no longer a picnic" Hanafi said as he announced his resignation on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
Egypt, the world’s largest importer of wheat, has been mired in controversy over whether much of the roughly 5 million tonnes of grain the government said it procured in this year’s harvest exists only on paper, the result of local suppliers falsifying receipts to boost government payments.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church announced on Thursday that it had finally reached an agreement with the government over a draft law pertaining to the construction and renovation of churches throughout the country, Egyptian newspaper Ahram Online reported.
The announcement followed a meeting on Wednesday hosted by the Church between 105 Coptic bishops to discuss the ramifications of the government’s "unacceptable amendments."
Talks were also held with President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi and Prime Minister Sherif Ismael, whose cooperation prompted the religious body to release another statement on Thursday.
"The Holy Synod announces, in good faith, [that it has reached] a compromise formula [of the law] with government representatives," the church said.
Awaiting ratification
The Church added that it is looking forward to seeing the new law implemented following the cabinet’s approval and final ratification by parliament.
This is not the first issue the Church has encountered. It says that Egypt’s estimated 15 million Copts face more hurdles in seeking government-sanctioned projects than their Moslem-majority counterparts.
The Church hopes that, once passed, the revised draft will lessen the bureaucratic pitfalls faced by those hoping to launch construction and renovation projects.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
The Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge will be inaugurated with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and foreign guests on Friday.
The bridge, which cost $3 billion, has a total of 10 lanes - eight highway lines and two rail lines running in both directions, and has 322-meter-high bridge towers. The bridge, which is 1,408 meters over the Bosporus, will be the longest suspension bridge in the world with a rail system. Rail and highway on a suspension bridge. I hope they studied the harmonics of Galloping Gertie
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/26/2016 10:39 ||
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[2 views]
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#1
Probably should be listed under 'culture wars'... but I'll spare you my reasons, other than to say it's not just education that has 'reduced the standards.'
#2
I recall in the 70s how 'standards' suddenly became racist. Let's just say the Asian community for some reason were not in the vanguard of that movement.
#4
@#1: Agreed, maybe we could also include the media and the parents ->"friends" metamorphosis. These aside, indoctrination centers schools, imho, provide the drumbeat from which the others derive their dances.
My wife just retired from teaching Kindergarten in large part because of the new "standards" that require 5 year olds to have daily homework and play time is cut dramatically.
My response, if I were in charge, would be to counter-warn that their patrol boats would be sunk at long range instead of letting them put on their little shows of bravado.
Iran's defense minister vowed Thursday that any U.S. or other warships that enter Iranian waters would be "severely punished," as the Pentagon confirmed that a U.S. patrol vessel had fired warning shots after being approached by an Iranian attack boat in an "unsafe" manner.
"It is a natural and routine program of the border patrol to do surveillance in the southern waters and to collect intelligence on foreign ships' operations," the Mehr news agency quoted Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan as telling reporters in Isfahan.
Whether American or otherwise, he said, "any destroyer of any sort would be severely punished if they are found to encroach our waters in Persian Gulf."
In the latest in a series of incidents in the area, an Iranian vessel approached two U.S. Navy ships Thursday, prompting crew on the USS Squall -- a Cyclone-class patrol coastal ship forward deployed to the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain -- to fire three warning shots.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said he believed the shots were fired "into the water."
"The Iranian craft, as I understand it, left at that point."
The U.S. vessels had initially taken other steps aimed at de-escalating the situation, including the firing of flares.
"They felt the need to take an additional step to try and de-escalate the situation, and that was, again, to fire the warning shots," Cook said.
"The onus here is on the Iranians to conduct themselves in a safe and professional manner, like navies all over the world do."
In an earlier incident Thursday, four Iranian vessels approached the destroyer USS Nitze in the Strait of Hormuz in what the Pentagon described as "an unsafe and unprofessional manner."
"Our ships were in international waters," said Cook. "Our sailors were conducting themselves professionally as they are trained to do. And we did not see the same from the Iranian boats on the other side."
The Strait of Hormuz lies between Iran and Oman, less than 30 miles wide at its narrowest point. It is one of the world's most crucial waterways, a transit channel for about one-fifth of the world's crude oil, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
The Iranian regime has periodically threatened to close the chokepoint, and challenges the U.S. Navy's right to patrol or hold military exercises there.
Cook said the Pentagon hopes Iranian harassment of U.S. Navy ships in the area does not continue, "because it serves no purpose other than to raise tensions in an important part of the world."
He said U.S. Navy personnel "will continue to take the steps that they need to, to protect themselves, their ships and our interests in the region."
"Our ships are operating as they have for years in that part of the world, in international waters, and will continue to do so," Cook said.
At the State Department Thursday, spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said she had no information to share on whether Kerry or other officials have raised with the Iranians the latest incidents in the Gulf.
"I just don't have any calls or engagements to read out as of right now," she said in response to questions. "I have nothing to announce."
#3
if its a Burke, open up the 5" and let it work 2km. If its a PC, they have a Bushmaster 25mm mounted thats pretty handy at chewing up small RHIBs like the Iranians use.
#4
What are they going to do? Grab another absolutely stupid native or naturalized American who ventures into their country. It's long past the time to put our own 'citizens' on notice. You go to country 'X', you do it because you damn well won't be told you can't, well, you are on your own. Don't call us. Your choice does not make our country hostage to your self centered behavior.
[Wash Times] A 76-year-old veteran committed suicide Sunday in the parking lot of New York Veterans Affairs hospital, police said.
Peter A. Kaisen, of Islip, was pronounced dead after he shot himself outside the nursing home at Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Long Island, Suffolk County police told The New York Times.
The reason for Mr. Kaisen’s suicide was not immediately known, but two people connected to the hospital told The Times he was angry after he was allegedly denied care in the emergency room for issues related to his mental health. "He went to the ER and was denied service," a hospital worker told The Times. "And then he went to his car and shot himself."
The staff member said there is always a psychologist on call, and the mental health building is open seven days a week, but no one at the ER gave Mr. Kaisen that information.
#1
Sad indeed. If anyone is offended by the graphic and black humour, I apologize in advance. Can we not however, put things in proper context. The VA provides much needed care and valuable benefits to hundreds of thousands of veterans and their families. I am grateful for the VA and my fellow Americans who foot the substantial bill for this benefit.
Eating your pistol in the parking lot is NOT a solution to the challenge of admissions or treatment.
#2
B.
His challenge wasn't admission or treatment. His challenge was being unable to stand being sick and tired of being sick and tired any longer.
The VA has 365k unionized, dues-paying employees, hardly any of them veterans. Thus, if they choose to say "eff you" to any complaints....they can.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/26/2016 7:32 Comments ||
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#3
Yes Richard, all one has to do is visit a VA Center. The staffing profile and sometimes staff attitudes are not unlike any other unionized Federal agency. My point is, even then, much good work is still being done.
I too can remember when veteran's preference for federal hiring actually meant something, and most of our USPS letter carriers were prior servicemen and women. Federal recruitment has changed, and we all know why.
Press releases for the VA just seem to all be negative. Evidently nothing good can be found. Hence my comments.
Again, my apologies if I have offended anyone. My limited VA experiences, and those of my friends (some of which are rather extensive) have generally been quite positive.
#4
My limited VA experiences, and those of my friends (some of which are rather extensive) have generally been quite positive.
The problem with large programs in general is that they can work well for the vast majority, while being disastrous for the small minority that does not fit into standard categories. When it comes to health care, taking a bit longer to get appointments, evaluations, and not-the-latest treatments isn't really an issue, as long as the patients are greeted cheerfully and are content with the price they pay for it. But for someone with something odd (Agent Orange sufferers, fast moving cancer, suicidal ideation), the delays will be deadly, as we see in this case and the unknown numbers of dead that have piled up over the last decade at least while the problems were actively hidden.
#6
If any of you are vets, use your state veteran's office as an advocate for you. Texas's has been very good for me and they love to sink their teeth into the VA at every hitch.
#7
Some Congressmen will also advocate with the VA for the veterans in their district. That was how our newest daughter's mother got a quick response from the VA when she was diagnosed with cancer -- she'd never gone to the VA before that point, so they were reluctant to accept her claim. She died anyway, because she didn't go to the doctor until it had metasticized throughout her body (stage 4?), but they did treat it aggressively until it was clear there was no point.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Daily Caller] Sen. Chuck Grassley is not happy that the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Inspector General can’t figure out how many felony fugitives live in federally-funded public housing, so he’s told the watchdog to do whatever it takes to get the answer.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Egypt’s Minister of Supply Khaled Hanafi has resigned amid the highest-profile corruption case since President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi came to power in 2014.
[Wash Times] A 76-year-old veteran committed suicide Sunday in the parking lot of New York Veterans Affairs hospital, police said.
