The Briefing Room
General Category => Economy/Business => Topic started by: thackney on August 23, 2016, 02:49:03 pm
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Why Did Mylan Hike EpiPen Prices 400%? Because They Could
http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2016/08/21/why-did-mylan-hike-epipen-prices-400-because-they-could/#10d7e67c477a
AUG 21, 2016
Mylan pharmaceutical company has a virtual monopoly on EpiPens after a voluntary recall felled their only competitor*, Sanofi’s Auvi-Q, over possible dosage miscalibrations. It’s not the drug being delivered that brings the bucks, though—epinephrine’s a cheap generic. The cost trickery is in the delivery system, the Mylan EpiPen.
The EpiPen’s been around since 1977, but Mylan acquired the autoinjector—which precisely calibrates the epinephrine dosage—in 2007. The patient now pays about 400% more for this advantage to receive a dollar’s worth of the lifesaving drug: EpiPens were about $57 when Mylan acquired it. Today, it can empty pockets of $500 or more in the U.S. (European nations take a different approach to these things).
It’s what the market will bear, so what’s the problem, right? Only this: Somewhere, right now, a cash-strapped parent or budget-limited patient with a severe allergy will skip acquiring an EpiPen. And someday, they will need it in a life-threatening situation involving exposure to a trigger…and they won’t have it. And they will die. Because they couldn’t afford the delivery mechanism for $1 worth of a drug to keep them alive. Two turning points, a death and one company at the crossroads.
According to NBC, Mylan’s profits from selling EpiPens, which they have aggressively, famously marketed with brilliant success, hit $1.2 billion in 2015. That year, Bloomberg reported that the epinephrine-delivery system represented 40% of Mylan’s operating profits. Bloomberg calls Mylan’s marketing of the EpiPen “a textbook case in savvy branding.”
That savvy comes at steep and increasing individual cost. Even after insurance pays, the customer can be out $400 or more for a pack of two pens, a dollar value that can vary depending on how high the deductible is. And most customers need EpiPens for home and at school for their child (Mylan does have a program that offers free EpiPens to U.S. schools). Indeed, guidelines call for prescribing two doses in case the first one fails, which Mylan used as an opportunity to cease selling single pens and begin selling only two-packs. As one parent wrote in response to this article, which has been updated:
You have left out/misreported one important detail, which is that with a life-threatening allergy, you are supposed to have 2 EpiPens at all times. If you administer one and it is more than 15 minutes before you are in emergency care, you have to administer the second one. So the pack of 2 is not meant to have 1 at school and 1 at home; it is because you need both with you at all times. This means that you need a pack of 2 at school and a pack of 2 at home for each person with severe allergies. In our case, with 2 kids, we have to have 8 at all times: 2 for each child at school and 2 for each child at home, and that is if we don’t even use them! If we do have to use one, we have to purchase more.
excerpted...
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Maybe if we actually started enforcing Anti-Trust Laws again.
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Why Did Mylan Hike EpiPen Prices 400%?
because the CEO is a sleazy douchebag
(http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_05/1403346/160204-martin-shkreli-house-hearing-1028a_810cd4f86f532ba2c3dfac704cee3fd2.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg)
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(http://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2015/09/23/16/Shkreli.jpg)
"I'm here to take what you've got!"
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because the CEO is a sleazy douchebag
(http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_05/1403346/160204-martin-shkreli-house-hearing-1028a_810cd4f86f532ba2c3dfac704cee3fd2.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg)
Definitely a Hillary voter.
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Not 'because they could'. Because the government mandated new regulations around them. In 2010, the government mandated they begin to sell Epipens in 2 packs and people with severe allergies carry 2. Starting in 2014, the government mandated that hotels, restaurants, cruise ships, and resorts keep them on hand. In 2015, the government loosened liability regulations around the use or misuse of Epipens, putting the manufacturer at greater legal risk and their insurance rates to skyrocket.
It isn't 'because they could', it is because they have to keep wrangling with constant government interventionism.
And now everyone is falling in with Chuck Schumer's line that this has to do with anti-trust and monopolies (thus giving the government more power) when government interventionism is what the real problem was.
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Definitely a Hillary voter.
hahaha... A Bernie man!
from Open Secrets:
SHKRELI, MARTIN
NEW YORK,NY 10016 TURING PHARMACEUTICALS AG 7/18/2015 $33,400 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte
SHKRELI, MARTIN
NEW YORK,NY 10016 TURING PHARMACEUTICALS 8/26/2015 $2,700 Jawando, Will
SHKRELI, MARTIN
NEW YORK,NY 10016 TURING PHARMACEUTICALS 9/2/2015 $2,700 Jawando, Will
SHKRELI, MARTIN
NEW YORK,NY 10016 TURING PHARMACEUTICALS AG 9/28/2015 $2,700 Sanders, Bernie
SHKRELI, MARTIN
NEW YORK,NY 10016 TURING PHARMACEUTICALS 9/28/2015 $2,600 Meeks, Gregory W
SHKRELI, MARTIN
NEW YORK,NY 10016 12/22/2015 $-33,400 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte
does this mean they gave the money back??
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Not 'because they could'. Because the government mandated new regulations around them.
The guy is a creep. He gives to the Democrats and they give him guaranteed buyers with their mandates.
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because the CEO is a sleazy douchebag
Except he is not the CEO of Mylan.
http://www.mylan.com/en/company/leadership (http://www.mylan.com/en/company/leadership)
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because the CEO is a sleazy douchebag
(http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_05/1403346/160204-martin-shkreli-house-hearing-1028a_810cd4f86f532ba2c3dfac704cee3fd2.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg)
Wrong CEO.
But if you will read the article, you will see that he had the gall to criticize Mylan, after his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, jacked up the Melaria-HIV price 5,000%
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Maybe if we actually started enforcing Anti-Trust Laws again.
Consumers do have access to a generic version of a calibrated delivery device for epinephrine, the Adrenaclick. According to Consumer Reports:
But EpiPen isn’t the only epinephrine injector on the market; the authorized generic of Adrenaclick (epinephrine auto-injector), is a cheaper option—we found it for $142 at Walmart and Sam’s Club using a coupon from GoodRx. While generic Adrenaclick isn’t the same technology and is used differently than EpiPen, both auto-injectors contain the same drug, epinephrine, available in the same dosages, says Barbara Young, Pharm.D., of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
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It isn't 'because they could', it is because they have to keep wrangling with constant government interventionism.
And now everyone is falling in with Chuck Schumer's line that this has to do with anti-trust and monopolies (thus giving the government more power) when government interventionism is what the real problem was.
“...government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
-Ronald Reagan
Inaugural Address
January 20, 1981
http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles/primary-sources/reagans-first-inaugural-government-is-not-the-solution-to-our-problem-government-is-the-problem
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Not 'because they could'. Because the government mandated new regulations around them. In 2010, the government mandated they begin to sell Epipens in 2 packs and people with severe allergies carry 2. Starting in 2014, the government mandated that hotels, restaurants, cruise ships, and resorts keep them on hand. In 2015, the government loosened liability regulations around the use or misuse of Epipens, putting the manufacturer at greater legal risk and their insurance rates to skyrocket.
It isn't 'because they could', it is because they have to keep wrangling with constant government interventionism.
And now everyone is falling in with Chuck Schumer's line that this has to do with anti-trust and monopolies (thus giving the government more power) when government interventionism is what the real problem was.
I'm really stuck on this one. I work in HIPAA Compliance and am in hospitals and other health care organizations on a daily basis. The amount of regulations they deal with is STAGGERING. The amount of risk of lawsuits for a multitude of reasons is worse. Throw in the insurance bureaucrats and I'm amazed anyone stays in healthcare.
That said, when it comes to HIPAA compliance and/or computer security most organizations simply wont do it without a big stick threatening them. They wont spend the money because its the right thing to do, they wont even do it because its the law. They will only do whats necessary to avoid govt fines and/or lawsuits. This isn't really limited to healthcare; no CEO will spend money to protect your personal information, credit card, financial, or heck even your children's information because its the right thing to do.
They don't care because the boards don't care. They are more concerned with their numbers than with your data.
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Maybe if we actually started enforcing Anti-Trust Laws again.
Where's the anti-trust violation? If there's a monopoly, it's a natural monopoly based on the government-sanctioned patent and the failure of their competitor (presumably not due to illegal efforts on the party of Mylan).
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How can this be solved by increasing freedom?
(I'm going to start asking that with everything)
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How can this be solved by increasing freedom?
(I'm going to start asking that with everything)
Could always get rid of statutory patents and instead rely on court-developed common law for protection of rights in intellectual property.
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How can this be solved by increasing freedom?
(I'm going to start asking that with everything)
A generic version already exists at a significantly lower cost. I don't understand why it isn't used more.
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Except he is not the CEO of Mylan.
http://www.mylan.com/en/company/leadership (http://www.mylan.com/en/company/leadership)
The CEO, Heather Bresch, is the daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-Obama bootlicker, W.Va.).
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A generic version already exists at a significantly lower cost. I don't understand why it isn't used more.
I suspect this has something to do with it:
EpiPen, Adrenaclick, Twinject, and the authorized generic to Adrenaclick have an FDA Orange Book rating of “BX,” indicating that insufficient evidence exists to determine therapeutic equivalence. This rating indicates that these epinephrine auto-injector products are not therapeutically equivalent to each other. For example, the other products should not be substituted and dispensed when EpiPen Auto-Injector is prescribed, unless the prescriber is consulted and agrees to change the prescription.
In addition to the lack of therapeutic equivalence among epinephrine auto-injector products, differences exist between the auto-injector devices’ appearance, administration technique, and dose verification ...
http://www.pharmacytimes.com/p2p/p2pepinephrine-0910 (http://www.pharmacytimes.com/p2p/p2pepinephrine-0910)
I do know that I have to replace my son's four Epi-Pens in about two weeks, and I will be asking the pediatrician about using a less expensive option.
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They don't care because the boards don't care. They are more concerned with their numbers than with your data.
I deal with FERPA data. We walk the line between protecting data and making it easily available. It's almost a joke. The biggest violators are the people charged with enforcing it. They make up arbitrary rules and then ignore them.
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I suspect this has something to do with it:
I do know that I have to replace my son's four Epi-Pens in about two weeks, and I will be asking the pediatrician about using a less expensive option.
Let us know. My wife's are about to pass their expiration date this winter.
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Let us know. My wife's are about to pass their expiration date this winter.
@Wingnut I will do that.
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I suspect this has something to do with it:
I do know that I have to replace my son's four Epi-Pens in about two weeks, and I will be asking the pediatrician about using a less expensive option.
I wonder how much Mylan "influenced" the FDA to get the "BX" ratings of alternatives. The medicine is identical.
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I wonder how much Mylan "influenced" the FDA to get the "BX" ratings of alternatives. The medicine is identical.
I did some reading last week and it seems the drug is the same. But the delivery system and steps to inject are different.
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I wonder how much Mylan "influenced" the FDA to get the "BX" ratings of alternatives. The medicine is identical.
"I wonder how much Mylan "influenced" the FDA to get the "BX" ratings of alternatives. The medicine is identical."
The relationship between these big companies and govt regulators is very very VERY incestuous. Not much happens as far as regulation that these big companies don't sign off on. Because the govt people might want a job when they leave the govt. A very well paying job.
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I suspect this has something to do with it:
I do know that I have to replace my son's four Epi-Pens in about two weeks, and I will be asking the pediatrician about using a less expensive option.
Thank you for the information. Keep us posted in what you learn. My mom also keeps Epi-Pens. Many of the seniors she knows that need them buy the two pack and split it with another, keeping only one Pen.
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Mylan expands EpiPen cost-cutting programs after charges of price gouging
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/25/mylan-expands-epipen-cost-cutting-programs-after-charges-of-price-gouging.html
8/25/2016
Mylan on Thursday announced plans to boost access to its EpiPen Auto-Injector by expanding already existing programs for patients who are facing higher out-of-pocket costs.
The price of the EpiPen, a life-saving medication and delivery system for people with severe allergies, has increased more than 400 percent in the past decade.
Shares of Mylan rose more than 3 percent in premarket trading Thursday following the announcement. (Get the latest quote here.) With the company under pressure from members of Congress and Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, the stock lost 5.4 percent of its value on Wednesday.
The company is reducing the cost of EpiPens through the use of a savings card that will cover up to $300 for the EpiPen 2-Pak.
excerpted
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News
Company that price gouged EpiPen is Clinton Foundation donor
By Daniel Halper
August 25, 2016 | 7:54am
The pharmaceutical company under fire for increasing the cost of its life-saving EpiPen has been criticized by Hillary Clinton — despite the fact that the manufacturer donated to the Clinton Foundation.
Records available on the website of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation reveal Mylan, the company that manufactures the EpiPen, has donated up to $250,000.
On Wednesday, Clinton released a statement blasting her family foundation’s donor.
more
http://nypost.com/2016/08/25/company-that-price-gouged-epipen-is-clinton-foundation-donor/
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Mylan's CEO is Heather Bresch, the daughter of Democrat U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of W.Va. She is infamous for having received an MBA from West Virginia University when she never attended a single class at the business school. Daddy made all the arrangements for her. You may recall that Manchin used to be almost conservative, but when he got in the Senate, he wanted desperately to be Hillary's running mate in 2008 so he veered left and never looked back. He's now in lockstep with the DNC on gun rights and just about every other item of the platform.
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Maybe if we actually started enforcing Anti-Trust Laws again.
Ditto and an excessive profits tax when companies and Ceo's mark up life saving medicine over 100 percent ..There is a reason I don't support unrestrained capitalism any more then I do socialism and this a good example
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Ditto and an excessive profits tax when companies and Ceo's mark up life saving medicine over 100 percent ..There is a reason I don't support unrestrained capitalism any more then I do socialism and this a good example
How do you fit in the generic version available with that thought?
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You shouldn't need a prescription to buy Epi-Pens or any medication for that matter.
There are failures of capitalism out there but this is not a failure of capitalism.
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You shouldn't need a prescription to buy Epi-Pens or any medication for that matter.
There are failures of capitalism out there but this is not a failure of capitalism.
Agreed. Especially a product like this where the user decides when to use it.
This is a government created problem. More government regulation is not a solution.
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Ditto and an excessive profits tax when companies and Ceo's mark up life saving medicine over 100 percent ..There is a reason I don't support unrestrained capitalism any more then I do socialism and this a good example
Ensure a competitive marketplace and an excess profits tax is unnecessary.
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The prescription system is totally unneeded IMO. No you shouldn't figure this stuff out all on your own, the doctor would write up a recommendation, you could give the recommendation to the pharmacy, they could direct you to the appropriate medication.
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Ensure a competitive marketplace and an excess profits tax is unnecessary.
I am in the health biz -30+ years
So much misinformation from conservatives/head in the sand regarding medical drugs. One thing that frost me with the right.. Companies are always right, gov't always wrong.
R/X companies impose their own prices and controls.
Generic drugs for instance have skyrocketed in price last 2-3 years due to drug companies buying up their competition, stopping the manufacturing of those drugs and then raising the price of theirs because they no longer have competition.
Generics have gone from in many cases from $10 to $35-40 just in the last few years. Gov't is not forcing them to do this..They are doing it to raise prices and because they can.
Get some education and stop blaming gov't for all this crap.
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The prescription system is totally unneeded IMO. No you shouldn't figure this stuff out all on your own, the doctor would write up a recommendation, you could give the recommendation to the pharmacy, they could direct you to the appropriate medication.
Soooo. your doctor knows why he/she is recommending a certain med due to known side effects or has inside information on your health history because tada he is your doctor but you will give the decision to make decision on your drugs to your pharmacist who is not a doctor and has not seen your medical chart /test?
No thanks.
@Weird Tolkienish Figure
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I am in the health biz -30+ years
So much misinformation from conservatives/head in the sand regarding medical drugs. One thing that frost me with the right.. Companies are always right, gov't always wrong.
R/X companies impose their own prices and controls.
Generic drugs for instance have skyrocketed in price last 2-3 years due to drug companies buying up their competition, stopping the manufacturing of those drugs and then raising the price of theirs because they no longer have competition.
Generics have gone from in many cases from $10 to $35-40 just in the last few years. Gov't is not forcing them to do this..They are doing it to raise prices and because they can.
Get some education and stop blaming gov't for all this crap.
I am blaming the government for not enforcing the Anti-Trust Laws.
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Soooo. your doctor knows why he/she is recommending a certain med due to known side effects or has inside information on your health history because tada he is your doctor but you will give the decision to make decision on your drugs to your pharmacist who is not a doctor and has not seen your medical chart /test?
No thanks.
@Weird Tolkienish Figure
Thanks for not understanding what I wrote, whatsoever. My proposal was simply to do what they do now, minus the legal compulsion.
Put power in the hands of consumers, not in the system.
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I am in the health biz -30+ years
So much misinformation from conservatives/head in the sand regarding medical drugs. One thing that frost me with the right.. Companies are always right, gov't always wrong.
R/X companies impose their own prices and controls.
Generic drugs for instance have skyrocketed in price last 2-3 years due to drug companies buying up their competition, stopping the manufacturing of those drugs and then raising the price of theirs because they no longer have competition.
Generics have gone from in many cases from $10 to $35-40 just in the last few years. Gov't is not forcing them to do this..They are doing it to raise prices and because they can.
Get some education and stop blaming gov't for all this crap.
That is technically illegal and anti-competitive. We don't need more laws, we need to enforce the ones we have.
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Check out the CEO's Daddy. Then you will know why the pens are so expensive. ;)
Exactly. Joe Manchin is of below-average intelligence, drinks too much and is as dishonest as any other Democrat you'll ever meet. He pulled strings for his little girl to get an MBA without ever attending classes, and you can bet he'd do whatever she asked when it came to the FDA or any other government regulations involving a Mylan product.
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... it's a natural monopoly based on the government-sanctioned patent...
Um, no. A patent is not a natural monopoly. It is a government-granted monopoly.
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Maybe if we actually started enforcing Anti-Trust Laws again.
I'm not sure this is a matter of lack of Anti-Trust enforcement. We regulate prices of natural monopolies (utilities) which deliver goods and services for which demand is inelastic (e.g. water, electricity) , but don't do the same for government-granted monopolies (patents) which deliver goods and services for which demand is inelastic (e.g life-saving drugs) on the plea that such regulation would interfere with the "free market". An absurd claim since the grant of a monopoly means there is not a free market in operation.
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Thank you for the information. Keep us posted in what you learn. My mom also keeps Epi-Pens. Many of the seniors she knows that need them buy the two pack and split it with another, keeping only one Pen.
Update for @Wingnut and @thackney :
Sorry guys, I punted. We went to the doctor yesterday and he gave us a $0 copay coupon for the EpiPens, so we went ahead and got those again. They are for my youngest son, so I didn't really want to muddy the waters with a new delivery device that works differently until I am forced to do so by economics.
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For $0 I would do the same.
God Bless
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Update for @Wingnut and @thackney :
Sorry guys, I punted. We went to the doctor yesterday and he gave us a $0 copay coupon for the EpiPens, so we went ahead and got those again. They are for my youngest son, so I didn't really want to muddy the waters with a new delivery device that works differently until I am forced to do so by economics.
Thanks for the info. I'll have the Mrs ask the doc for one of those zero copay thingies.
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Thanks for the info. I'll have the Mrs ask the doc for one of those zero copay thingies.
Yep, those are very handy.
As an aside, the retail price on my receipt was $729.99 per 2-pack.
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As an aside, the retail price on my receipt was $729.99 per 2-pack.
:thud:
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:thud:
Couldn't have said it better.
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Report: EpiPen profits 60% more than Bresch told Congress
W.Va. Gazette-Mail (http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20160926/report-epipen-profits-60-more-than-bresch-told-congress#sthash.jfLpD7qq.dpuf)
Sept. 26, 2016
Lawmakers were skeptical last week when Mylan chief executive Heather Bresch told them the company made only $100 in profit for a two-pack of EpiPens.
During a House hearing, Bresch repeatedly referred to a poster board showing how little of the $608 list price trickled back to the company.
The incredulity was warranted: The profits Bresch told Congress about were calculated after factoring in the 37.5 percent U.S. tax rate, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission first reported by The Wall Street Journal. That tax rate is more than five times the overall tax rate the company actually paid last year and much higher than its actual U.S. tax rate, which tax specialists have pegged at close to zero.
Before taxes, the EpiPen profit is actually $160 for a two-pack. At the hearing, Bresch said the company sold about 4 million two-packs a year.
“It is intellectually dishonest to include tax provisions for U.S. taxes that aren’t due, and that the company does not, in fact, anticipate ever having to pay,” said Edward Kleinbard, a professor of law and business at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law.
As The Washington Post has reported, Mylan has reduced its effective tax rate through an inversion by relocating its headquarters to the Netherlands. The company’s overall tax rate is well below the U.S. tax rate, at 7 percent in 2015, according to the SEC filing. But the taxes the company pays in the United States have been pushed down even further.
Mylan’s U.S. tax rate “is close to zero, a very, very low rate,” Robert Willens, an independent tax expert, said.
Mylan defended the way it reported its profits.
“Tax is typically included in a standard profitability analysis, and the information provided to Congress has made clear that tax was part of the EpiPen Auto-Injector profitability analysis,” Mylan spokeswoman Nina Devlin said in a statement. “It also is important to note that use of a statutory tax rate for the jurisdiction being analyzed (in this instance, the U.S.) is standard.”