Co. won’t cut EpiPen price
Refusal spurs new investors to Mylan
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 drug maker didn’t budge on its price hikes yesterday, 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 drug makers, Turing Pharmaceuticals and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. among them, that have been called out after mammoth price hikes for the drugs they sell, with little or no innovation.
Turing’s former CEO Martin Shkreli became the poster child of pharmaceutical-industry greed last fall for hiking the price of a life-saving drug, Daraprim, by more than 5,000 percent.
He has applauded Mylan’s actions.
The average price of a two-dose EpiPen package climbed to about $608 earlier this year, up more than 500 percent from around $94 nine years ago, according to the Elsevier Clinical Solutions’ Gold Standard Drug Database.
Mylan CEO Heather Bresch told CNBC yesterday that lowering the price was not an option.
“Had we reduced the list price, I couldn’t ensure that everyone who needs an EpiPen gets one,” she said.
EpiPens are used in emergencies to treat severe allergies that can lead to anaphylactic shock. Roughly 40 million Americans have severe allergies to spider bites, bee stings and foods such as nuts, eggs and shellfish.
Bresch said Mylan gets $274 for a two-dose EpiPen package. The rest of the $608 price goes to entities that stand between the drug maker and the patient, like insurers, pharmacy benefits managers, wholesalers and drugstores.
“This isn’t an EpiPen issue,” she said. “This isn’t a Mylan issue. This is a health care issue.”
However, it is Mylan that is increasing the price of the drug and the company stuck by those price hikes yesterday.
That stance brought a wave of new money from investors who drove Mylan’s shares up more than 2 percent in morning trading, while major U.S. indexes slipped.