Mylan boosts EpiPen patient programs, doesn’t budge on price

Mylan is bulking up programs that help patients pay for its EpiPen emergency allergy treatment after weathering heated criticism about an average cost that has soared over the past decade.

But the drugmaker didn’t budge on its price hikes Thursday, which have drawn ire both in Congress and from families that have had to shell out increasingly large sums for the potentially life-saving treatment.

That means the insurers and employers that pay the bulk of the EpiPen cost for many patients will continue to do so, contributing to higher health insurance costs.

“That’s just going to come out in the premiums,” said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at the Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. “Everybody suffers, except the Mylan investors.”

Mylan joins a growing list of drugmakers that have been called out after mammoth price hikes, with little or no innovation.