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| Home Front: Politix |
| CEO Who Raised Prices on EpiPen Is Joe Manchin's Daughter |
| 2016-08-25 |
| [Free Beacon] Capitol Hill could get awkward in September if the Senate Judiciary Committee calls for Mylan NV CEO Heather Bresch to testify. Bresch’s pharmaceutical company not only hiked the price of the EpiPen by 400 percent, but her father is Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.). Despite Bresch’s family connection to Manchin, she is not being shielded from criticism. Lawmakers from both chambers of Congress believe that the price hike is detrimental to families who need the EpiPen to prevent life threatening allergic reactions, Bloomberg reported. Mylan used to charge $57 per shot for the EpiPen in 2007, but now they are charging over $600 for two auto-injectors. "I am deeply concerned by this significant price increase for a product that has been on the market for more than three decades, and by Mylan’s failure to publicly explain the recent cost increase, which places a significant burden on parents, schools, and other purchasers of the EpiPen," Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) said Tuesday in a statement, adding that he has a child with severe allergies. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), who has asked the company to lower its prices, is holding an event Wednesday where he will call for the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate "potential antitrust violations and deceptive and illegal trade practices," Bloomberg reported. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #8 More concerned about some didnadonuffin thinking it was something else and making a grab. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2016-08-25 13:33 |
| #7 Including copy of individual's prescription in kit. Hopefully keeps the LEOs satisfied. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2016-08-25 13:32 |
| #6 we're having our physicians teach us how to do the injections with a cheap syringe |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2016-08-25 09:46 |
| #5 they're pretty hard to mistake for a syringe. It's an autoinjector in a plastic pack |
| Posted by: Frank G 2016-08-25 09:32 |
| #4 make up small 'kits' to carry around Probably a fine choice until a family member carrying such a kit encounters a LEO who only thinks "syringe=heroin addict." |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2016-08-25 08:47 |
| #3 Merck held the patent for years. They spent large $$ developing and improving the unit, but it was only a small part of their overall market share. They didn't raise the prices for the improved devices accordingly, probably not wanting to have governments start prying into their other product pricing (don't believe they were just being benevolent). Mylan bought the rights in 2007 as an investment (no R&D, just manufacturing on the cheap and sales). Guess what happened. They held the market and priced accordingly. Typical Hedge Fund method of operation. Have you seen any new product improvements for these in the last 10 years? Didn't think so. There are several in our family that have serious bee-sting allergies, and we have to change these things out every 18 months or so as their shelf life expires. They went from ~$80 to $300 apiece now. The alternative Adrenaclick (similar product by a different company) is still about $150 a pop. Until the patent expires (and/or someone comes up with a decent alternative), we're having our physicians teach us how to do the injections with a cheap syringe and make up small 'kits' to carry around. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2016-08-25 08:25 |
| #2 With that much money in the epipen biz, you'd think other companies would be scrambling for a share. Prices would necessarily drop. What, do you think, is keeping them out? Hmmm. |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2016-08-25 07:41 |
| #1 For a knee-slappin' laugh riot, go read about her "MBA" from WVU and the fallout from that episode. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2016-08-25 05:29 |