Mylan to offer generic EpiPen for half the price
Mylan said Monday that it will offer a generic version of the life-saving allergy treatment EpiPen for half the list price of the brand-name treatment after it became the center of a national controversy over skyrocketing drug prices.
The move marks a sharp shift in Mylan’s position after it vigorously defended multiple increases over the years that resulted in a list price of about $600 for a two-pack of the emergency injection treatment, up from about $100 in 2009.
The generic version of EpiPen “will be identical to the branded product, including device functionality and drug formulation,” Mylan said in a statement.
“It’s highly unusual for a generic product to come out in this way,” Marianne Udow-Phillips, director of the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation at the University of Michigan, said Monday. “It clearly shows how much pressure Mylan was under. It’s still a huge profit margin for them.”
The company’s decision was revealed hours before Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform launched an investigation into EpiPen price increases in a rare show of bipartisanship that unDrugmaker derscores the depth of the opposition to Mylan’s strategy.
Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and ranking member Elijah Cummings, DMd., requested a slew of documents from Mylan, including details of EpiPen profits and sales, lobbying data, internal cost figures and federal health reimbursement numbers.
Mylan has “a virtual monopoly over the epinephrine auto-injector market,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Mylan CEO Heather Bresch. “While families and schools are struggling to keep up with your company’s unreasonable price increases, Mylan has profited richly from its pricing strategy.”
The committee’s letter, which requested a briefing by Sept. 6 and documents by Sept. 12, paves the way for a potential congressional hearing on the matter.
The company will surely cite its decision to introduce an identical generic as reflective of its attentiveness to public concerns.
The move could also be viewed as something of a preemptive strike by Mylan, which is facing the prospect of a generic competitor offered by rival Teva Pharmaceutical Industries — although the Food and Drug Administration recently dealt Mylan’s competitor a setback, saying it wasn’t ready to hit the market and delaying the drug until at least 2017.
Mylan’s generic version will hit shelves within several weeks at a list price of $300 for a two-pack carton in dosages of either 0.15 milligrams or 0.30 mg, the company said.
Mylan will continue to sell EpiPen and continue to offer a $300 discount to certain families that qualify for assistance based on their income levels.