Why is Mylan price gouging on a f*ing Epipen?


anonymous

Guest
Why price gouge parents of small children on the Epipen? Mylan you are being greedy and silly!
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/eco...ids-allergies-scrambling-ahead-school-n633071

The cost of saving your child's life has gotten a lot more expensive.

Parents getting ready for back to school season have another item to toss in the basket along with Trapper Keepers and boxes of pencils and they're facing sticker shock at the latest price increase.

Doctors and patients say the Mylan pharmaceutical company has jacked up the prices for an EpiPen — the portable device that can stop a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction — from around $100 in 2008 to $500 and up today.

That's a hike of over 400 percent.

"Patients are calling and saying they can't afford it," said Dr. Douglas McMahon, an allergy specialist in Maplewood, Minnesota. "They're between a rock and a hard place."

Following a recall by Mylan's chief competitor last year, the company now enjoys a near monopoly.

Because of aggressive marketing and branding campaigns, and lobbying for legislation that requires them to be stocked in schools, they have a brand dominance equal to that of Kleenex, doctors say.

About the size of a fat marker, they are carried by many parents of kids with severe allergies wherever they go — ready to jam the gizmo into their child's thigh to deliver epinephrine and stop anaphylactic shock from a potentially fatal bee sting or bit of peanut.


An EpiPen. Carlos Osorio / AP file
And because they have a stated expiration date of one year, parents refill them annually, incurring an additional co-pay each time.

Tracy Bush, a 42-year-old mom and food allergy consultant, never goes anywhere without two EpiPens on her. Her son, age 14, carries another. She began doing so after he was diagnosed with severe allergies as a 2-year-old.

For the past 10 years has watched the price she paid for her refills rise higher and higher with no discernible improvement to the device or medicine.

In 2008 she said the price was $145.99. In 2010, it was $220.99, then jumped to $649.99. This year her pre-insurance costs were $1,118.08.

Despite the hikes, Bush was glad to have one two years ago her son had a bad reaction while eating some watermelon.

"He said it felt like a potato chip was caught in his throat. Then he got a look of terror on his face. His voice was totally different, it sounded like he had sucked helium. I was like oh my goodness, I'm going to have to use an EpiPen," she said. "I will never forget the look that I saw."

In a statement, Mylan said that the prices have "changed over time to better reflect important product features and the value the product provides," and that "we've made a significant investment to support the device over the past years."

The company also offers coupons on its website that can reduce costs.

This year for the first time Bush was able to use those coupons and her "good" insurance plan to bring down her out-of-pocket costs to zero. But not everyone can do the same.

"When epinephrine only costs a few cents, but they're going up to $500, personally I don't think that's ethically responsible," said Dr. McMahon. However he does understands there are costs involved, better than most.

For the past few years he's been developing his own, smaller version of the EpiPen, and trying to get it approved by the FDA and bring it to market. He estimates that process costs about $1.5 million. In 2015, Mylan's profits from the sale of EpiPens rose to $1.2 billion.

McMahon says his device will retail for about $50.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the former presidential contender and a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, told NBC News in a statement:

"The drug industry's greed knows no bounds. There's no reason an EpiPen, which costs Mylan just a few dollars to make, should cost families more than $600. The only explanation for Mylan raising the price by six times since 2009 is that the company values profits more than the lives of millions of Americans."
 

I work for another biotech company in this industry but felt the need to come on this board and post. What is your company thinking??? I saw this story on ABC nightly news last night and was embarrassed for you people. With all of the bad press this industry gets, pricing moves like what Mylan has done for the EpiPen makes us all look bad. This puts Mylan in the category of Martin Shkreli and his shady pharma operation.

I have an idea...if you are so DESPERATE for money, how about you stop running those stupid EpiPen commercials? What a waste of money! What idiot thought a life-saving allergy drug would actually need to be advertised? Anyone who has children with these issues knows about the benefits of the EpiPen. You don't need to "sell" the product on TV to people who will never need it or use it.

Stop this ridiculous pricing madness, unless you want the government dictating how we price drugs.
 
Mylan now joins the other Sewer Companies:

1. Valeant
2. Turing
3. Mallinckrodt

Being a Pharma employee used to mean you worked for a good industry that was focused on helping humanity.

Now it has become Money Money Money. I would not have my kid follow in my foot steps.

It is disgusting and I hope the Government forces the FDA to make it easier to manufacture and market Generics. once the initial patent expires.
 
Yes she needs to go now.

The CEO sets the moral compass of the Company and apparently she has set it to point to HELL.

Martin gone Mike Pearson gone now it is her time.!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Yes since Heather took over the company it is all about the money. We could care less about the patients.
Objective is how much we can "take them for"............

Apparently that is why so called Pharma companies hire MBA's instead of MD or people who care about people.

It is a shame we have become associated with the SEWER companies as Bill Ackerman has so coined us!!
 
Yes since Heather took over the company it is all about the money. We could care less about the patients.
Objective is how much we can "take them for"............

Apparently that is why so called Pharma companies hire MBA's instead of MD or people who care about people.

It is a shame we have become associated with the SEWER companies as Bill Ackerman has so coined us!!
Yeah, and she gave herself a big fat raise too! How would you like a 600% raise?

AUG 23 2016, 7:33 PM ET
Mylan Execs Gave Themselves Raises As They Hiked EpiPen Prices
by BEN POPKEN
As EpiPen's Price Soared 400 Percent, Executive Pay Soared 600 Percent 2:04
EpiPen prices aren't the only thing to jump at Mylan. Executive salaries have also seen a stratospheric uptick.

Proxy filings show that from 2007 to 2015, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch's total compensation went from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068, a 671 percent increase. During the same period, the company raised EpiPen prices, with the average wholesale price going from $56.64 to $317.82, a 461 percent increase, according to data provided by Connecture.

a_101_epipen_price_160823.nbcnews-ux-800-440.jpg

EpiPen Prices Rocket Along with Drugmaker Executive's Pay 1:11
In 2007 the company bought the rights to EpiPen, a device used to provide emergency epinephrine to stop a potentially fatal allergic reaction and began raising its price. In 2008 and 2009, Mylan raised the price by 5 percent. At the end of 2009 it tried out a 19 percent hike. The years 2010-2013 saw a succession of 10 percent price hikes.


Heather Bresch, chief executive officer of drugmaker Mylan Inc., speaks during an interview in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015. Victor J. Blue / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
And from the fourth quarter of 2013 to the second quarter of 2016, Mylan steadily raised EpiPen prices 15 percent every other quarter.

The stock price more than tripled, going from $13.29 in 2007 to a high of $47.59 in 2016.

And while sales of the life-saving drug rose to provide 40 percent of the company's operating profits in 2014, as Bloomberg reported, salaries for other Mylan executives also went up. In 2015, President Rajiv Malik's base pay increased 11.1 percent to $1 million, and Chief Commercial Officer Anthony Mauro saw his jump 13.6 percent to $625,000.

CNBC: How Mylan Hiked Prices of Lots of Other Products Besides EpiPen

After Mylan acquired EpiPen the company also amped up its lobbying efforts. In 2008, its reported spending on lobbying went from $270,000 to $1.2 million, according to opensecrets.org.

Legislation that enhanced its bottom line followed, with the FDA changing its recommendations in 2010 that two EpiPens be sold in a package instead of one and that they be prescribed for at-risk patients, not just those with confirmed allergies. And in 2013 the government passed a law to give block grants to states that required they be stocked in public schools.

A spokeswoman for Mylan, the sole supplier of EpiPens, didn't respond to NBC News emails or voicemail seeking comment.

This isn't the first time the company's executives have been touched by a scandal.

A 2008 inquiry found Bresch didn't complete the coursework for her MBA granted by West Virginia University. The school had received a $20 million donation from Mylan chairman Milan Puskar in 2003.

Several of the university administrators resigned in the aftermath, including president Mike Garrison. The former Mylan consultant and lobbyist had gone to high school with Bresch, the daughter of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, and was a longtime family friend.

As NBC News previously reported, the sharp increases in price haven't escaped the attention of parents worried about paying for the drug in the back-to-school scramble, and Congress is starting to scrutinize Mylan's pricing.

On Monday, Senator Amy Klobuchar wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, calling for a probe.

In a statement to NBC News, an FTC spokesman said, "The Commission takes seriously its obligation to take action where pharmaceutical companies have violated the antitrust laws, and it will continue to closely scrutinize drug market competition on consumers' behalf."

The pharmaceutical industry has seen steep increases in the past few years. Along with specialized drugs like ones for cystic fibrosis, decades-old generic prices have spiked. When one company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of a drug used by HIV patients 5,000 percent overnight, the ensuing uproar pressured it to pledge lower its prices. Though, nearly a year later, a search on the drug-price comparison site GoodRx shows pharmacies are still selling it for the same amount or higher.

Among the usual advice for lower your prescription drug costs is to seek out a generic alternative. But because of the patent on the EpiPen delivery device, a true generic doesn't exist. Patients are instead buying abroad where the EpiPen is cheaper, and resorting to other devices that deliver epinephrine, including DIY syringes.

Shares of Mylan were down more than 4 percent in trading Tuesday as news of its troubles spread.
 
You guys must keep Shireli off of TV. He was just on NBC Nightly News comparing EpiPens to his iPhone. I can't believe with the amount of time he has had to think of a justification -- that was it. Oh, and that its also the responsibility of insurance companies to pay for the overpriced medication (which explains part of the reason insurance rates are so high).
 
Heather's father will protect her. He is working with Hillary and the other Democrats to squash the probe.
Good to have friends and relatives in high places.

You see you can lie about your education (MBA) and get away with shit (Sewer Comapny) and no one touches you because you have connections.

What a country.:rolleyes:
 
Funny.

Hillary went after Turin and Valeant. Let's see if she is mum on Mylan.

If she is then it is true. You pay to play!!!!


Go Trump, and flip flop all over the place. American Politics is so corrupt!!!!
 
Heather's father will protect her. He is working with Hillary and the other Democrats to squash the probe.
Good to have friends and relatives in high places.

You see you can lie about your education (MBA) and get away with shit (Sewer Comapny) and no one touches you because you have connections.

What a country.:rolleyes:

Mark my words...this lady will be out of a job. It may take weeks (or even months) but you don't come back from a debacle like this. Greed gets you nowhere. Maybe her Daddy should have taught her that.
 
agree - STUPID.

How after the Turing and Valeant recent publicity how you could do this.

maybe it is not Stupidity, maybe it is ARROGANCE.

She has to go and go now. Clean house Board of Directors today!!!
 
Yes she needs to go now.

The CEO sets the moral compass of the Company and apparently she has set it to point to HELL.

Martin gone Mike Pearson gone now it is her time.!!!!!!!!!!!!


Yeah, but I would tap that. Her picture on Fox Business is cute. I know, I know, I'm a pig.

I am thinking her ethics are pretty low, I would assume her morals are too. Wonder what she likes to drink? :rolleyes:
 
A generic house getting lambasted due to greed. About time the chicken has come home to roost.

Just saw a report on Fox Business outlining the tax inversion (IE:HQ in the Netherlands now) and how a board member sold property to someone for $1 to then turned around and sold it to Mylan for huge $. A little quid pro quo for your pleasure?

No returned phone calls to any news source from anyone at Mylan. Time to clean house of senior leadership demanding all pay raises given to the CEO (voted on by the board she sits on)be returned so to reflect a 2% increase in annual raises. From 2007 to 2015, she got +600% increase in pay. 8 years at 2%=16%.
Can you imagine her face when she will need to return the income differential? Priceless.
 
Some Corporate Communications department!!!

When there is no response means the CEO must go. Quicker the Better. Another Martin Schrelli. Keeping her on past weekend shows the true indecency of Mylan. Swift action is the only solution.
 


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