United States lawmakers question Mylan’s Medicaid EpiPen rebates

Clinton’s plan is carefully delineated to target “excessive, outlier” price hikes on “long-standing” treatments that haven’t had any major improvements and have little or no competition. One is my wife, who if stung by a bee, must be rushed to an emergency room without her EpiPen.

Her announcement comes amid a firestorm of criticism for a huge price increase by Mylan, the makers of the allergy device EpiPen, which severe allergy sufferers carry at all times to deliver an emergency dose of epinephrine in the event of an attack.

Conover said Clinton’s plan to address unjustified price hikes is less of a concern to the drug industry than her pledge past year to reduce drug prices overall. Lawmakers argued that lowering or limiting drug prices would interfere with drug markers’ ability to invest in research and develop new therapies.

He noted the company’s stock dropped 10 percent in the last month and badly trails the performance of other Big Pharma stocks.

You see, the company that owns the EpiPen-Mylan NV-approved a one-time employee award created to encourage the doubling of the company’s adjusted per-share earnings over a course of five years, with that period ending in 2018.

The Nasdaq biotech index slipped 0.40 percent.

Pharmacy benefits managers, which negotiate drug prices for insurers and employers, often get discounts off a drug’s list price, and patient out-of-pocket costs can vary by plan. The generic is expected to launch in several weeks.

Today, building off the comprehensive plan she offered earlier in the campaign past year, Clinton is calling for action to protect consumers from unjustified prescription drug price increases by companies that are marketing long-standing, life-saving treatments and face little or no competition.

“It’s a response to the broader industry phenomenon of generating added profits by raising the price of drugs for which there is no competition”, Bach said, saying the campaign was focusing on a “sub-category” of manufacturers that had not invested heavily in developing a drug.

“Mine thankfully is only contact”, LoScalzo said. “Mylan’s near monopoly on the epinephrine auto-injector market has allowed you to increase prices well beyond those that are justified by any increase in the costs of manufacturing the EpiPen”. The body wouldn’t officially be able to set prices on long-available drugs, but its ability to slap a financial penalty on the next company that jacks up the cost of a 20-year-old medical implement or pill would come pretty darn close.

“We appreciate New York State and the physicians on the SEMAC for recognizing the challenge the cost of EpiPens presented and providing this project to address the issue”, James P. McPartlon III, President of Mohawk Ambulance Service said. Meanwhile, Congress isn’t even talking about a free market solution that might help: looking at the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process for products like the EpiPen, or the regulations that put various private intermediaries between consumers and health care products. During the same period, Mylan’s CEO, Heather Bresch, saw her pay jump many times, with her pay hike eventually becoming sevenfold. Given price increases take place on nearly every drug, what will be deemed excessive.