Hillary Clinton calls for EpiPen price cuts

As the pharmaceutical company Mylan raised the price of the EpiPen, a device commonly used to counter allergic reactions, company executives got a big bump in compensation. Joe Manchin’s daughter faces scrutiny for hiking prices on life-saving allergy injection pens, Manchin is remaining mum.

The price of insulin, like with other pharmaceuticals, is controlled by the manufactures, insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers.

Mylan CEO Heather Bresch could be called to Capitol Hill in the near future to answer questions about the significant rise in the cost of Mylan’s EpiPen.

“Not only should the Judiciary Committee hold a hearing, the Federal Trade Commission should investigate these price increases immediately”.

The company that manufacturers the devices, Mylan, has a monopoly on EpiPens – potentially life-saving devices used to stop allergic reactions. His silence contrasted with a growing number of leaders crying foul on the ballooning prices, including fellow senators and the presidential candidate Manchin has endorsed, Hillary Clinton. This current and ongoing shift has presented new challenges for consumers, and now they are bearing more of the cost. “The FTC should investigate whether Mylan Pharmaceuticals engaged in activity, such as using incentives or exclusionary contracts with insurers, distributors, or pharmacies, to deny an alternative product access to the market”.

On Monday, Grassley sent Bresch a letter requesting information about how Mylan determined the price of EpiPens.

Earlier this week, Mylan said in a statement its prices have “changed over time to better reflect important product features and the value the product provides”.

The EpiPen controversy follows a similar controversy a year ago, when Martin Shkreli, chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, drastically raised the price of a key cancer and AIDS drug. The average wholesale price of the EpiPen has increased almost 150% since 2009.

The price of a pack of two EpiPens has gone from 0 in 2008 to 0 this year.

The bill passed Congress easily, with her father among those providing yes votes. He cited the cost to parents when children must have them and to schools that keep EpiPens on hand.

In a statement to The Huffington Post last week, Mylan noted it has donated 650,000 EpiPen and EpiPen Jrauto-injectors to about half of all USA schools and said the vast majority of commercially insured patients received the EpiPen for free.

But insurance companies don’t always cover the cost of the generic version of the EpiPen, he said.

“Although the product is unchanged since 2009, the cost has skyrocketed by more than 400 percent during that period”. Many other drugmakers also routinely raise prices of their prescription drugs by 10 percent or more each year, and USA legislation is needed to prevent such “price spikes”, he added.

“Ensuring access to epinephrine – the only first-line treatment for anaphylaxis – is a core part of our mission”, Devlin said.