Epipen

I don't understand why the government and public are just now upset about pharmaceutical costs. Price gouging has been standard practice for decades.

This is what Oblubber should have been fixing back in '08......not the bogus fix that has failed miserably

*sarcasm alert* - don't want yall to get butthurt

What!!! We needed universal healthcare Cliff! illegal aliens don't deserve healthcare??? you animal!!!!

Mylan invested billions to bring a drug to market so they could.......
A. make money for their shareholders while improving the lives of patients with life threatening allergic reactions
B. give away all earnings in the name of wealth distribution
C. could spend the week on capitol hill defending their strategy to operate profitably in a grossly over-inflated and wasteful system lining the pockets of insurance companies and the IRS.

200K Wake boats are okay and you're about an epi-pen. Let's get our priorities in order...

It's been awhile since i've posed, hope you're well cliff. My .02

The pen was increased by 500%. The issue is that this isn't a luxury drug or medication. It is a lifesaving device with no alternatives. I agree, it would be great if the FDA could do something about Heather and the PhrmaBro. But what can they do that wouldn't hamper free enterprise? Lucky enough this is a bipartisan issue.

I have a prescription for an Epipen because I am allergic to Aspartame and have been to the hospital by ambulance 3 times for anaphylaxis. I stopped buying them a few years ago. When I first started buying them (with my crappy insurance that has a deductible), they were about $100 for a 2 pack. Then they went to $200 and I bought them even though I have never used any and then I went to refill the prescription and it was $300. I searched around and found a discount for $270. I didn't refill at that price point, I decided that I could just load up on Benadryl in my cars, the boat and work backpack so that I could slow down any reactions that I might have. I haven't heard how much they actually cost now but it sounds like it's $500+? I can't imagine if my child had a crazy allergy, I would just pay the money.

I get it, they invested money and want to make money off of their product, that's the American way. Here's the thing though, it's not new! You've recouped your R&D cost after having been on the market for years and years and after most meds recoup that, a generic version becomes available. So far, there's no generic version available so now you're just taking advantage of people.

who knows how many years they projected those costs over. Crazy these expire after a year and have to be replaced.

there are a few other options it looks like: Adrenaclick at 200 a pen. Auvi-Q was another but had a recall.

the cost issue is a very complicated one. In the past, we had very lucrative med ins plans. today, not so much, patients are paying more of there share of the total costs. In recent years, a $600 pen could have been easily absorbed. As mentioned, all drugs have gone through the roof. my wife has fairly severe asthma. its costs almost $500 per month out of pocket for her meds until we hit her deductible, which is usually in June/July. The entire medical industry isn't much different than what we're seeing with Mylan and Epipen. Had an MRI in December, wrote a check for $375, they bill my insurance $5000 just to see if they'll pay it. It's stupid and needs to be reformed.

You think that is crazy. I take Stellara once every three months. The cost per shot is around 9K of which I pay $35.00. I know its not the same as a life saving drug, but damn.

yea
I'm in favor of free enterprise. I hate government intrusion. But, I understand that it's necessary at some level.

Smarter people than me could come up with a solution if it was a priority. To me, all of the months wasted over the oblubbercare debates, could have been spent for better use.

Pharm costs need reigned in. Tort reform needs addressed. Both of these would have gone farther and been more of a long term solution than anything that the current law provides

just my .02

I just overheard in the background that the CEO's, Heather, salary has gone from $2.5M per to over $18.M in just 7 years! At the same time, she grew EpiPen revenue from $200M to over $1B, impressive.

The portion of the math I have hard time with, her salary grew at the exact same rate as cost of the EpiPen. I get it though, profitable work should be rewarded. However, the problem here is that Mylan's greed will cost lives. There will be families who put off the purchase because they are not able to afford it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...ollar-business

It's easy to blame corporations, wall street fat cats and all the other negative monikers associated with companies like Mylan. If you want to see new drugs brought to market to cure diseases, who do you think is going to invest in developing the drug, getting it through trials and finally through FDA approval? Costs billions to do successfully. For every drug that does make it through phase 3 trials, there's a 5 or 10 of them that did not succeed. Those R&D $$$ are still spent, whether the drug is approved or not.

A lot of these comp packages include stock options. She's being paid very well, but isn't cashing 18MM in checks.

Life's better for everyone with companies like Mylan. I hope we don't become so short sighted that we F up the R&D of new drugs!!

Life's better for everyone with companies like Mylan. I hope we don't become so short sighted that we F up the R&D of new drugs!!

But Mylan didn't invest into any R&D in the epipen. It was invented back in the 70's and they bought the distribution rights from Merck in 2007 (who was charging 50 bucks per epipen).

Mylan invested billions to bring a drug to market so they could.......
A. make money for their shareholders while improving the lives of patients with life threatening allergic reactions

What a load of horse sh#^, the only thing Mylan did was buy an established product, dump millions into marketing and lawsuits against competitors and jack up the price 500%.

Originally Posted by lugwrench

What a load of horse sh#^, the only thing Mylan did was buy an established product, dump millions into marketing and lawsuits against competitors and jack up the price 500%.

Interesting take on things. They're not doing anything illegal.

question from the hearing.

Q; Mam how much is your sallery per yer.
A: Around Eighteen Million per year.

Holly crap! That woman went from a solid 3 to a 8 or 9 LOL

Interesting take on things. They're not doing anything illegal.

If we were talking about blu-ray players or iPhones, then I'd agree with you. But this is a life saving drug that families have literally been priced out of, for no other reason than greed. This is a company/CEO that is morally bankrupt not "improving the lives of patients with life threatening allergic reactions".

If ibuprofen was the only drug available to combat fevers in children and over night, the company that held the patent raised the prices to 600/pill I think the world would stand up and take notice. But hey, they're not doing anything illegal.

The CEO is a strawman for corporate greed. No doubt.

But legacy products have to pay for the current pipeline, so whether or not they bought the license or paid the r&d, the money is getting funneled that direction.


Like it or not, drug companies are for profit so their goods are just like phones and other consumer product. The market dictates development and cost.
Notice that while even though more and more bacteria become AB resistant, no new antibiotics are coming in the pipeline? That's because there is 0 cash in that space to fund their development, yet it is a growing need. If that industry was a charity there would be no drugs at all.

Originally Posted by grant_west

question from the hearing.

Holly crap! That woman went from a solid 3 to a 8 or 9 LOL

Now that is funny! I told my GF the same thing.

Fat-B, its called capitalism.

Nacho I know, and maybe I owe you an apology for getting too heated as this hits very close to home for me. Both my son and my wife carry an epi-pen. My wife is allergic to bees and my son has the highest level of allergy to peanuts. If someone is eating shelled peanuts around him it will send him into respiratory distress. Every single day he's not in my sight I get nervous, and the only thing available to us at the moment is the epi-pen.

While my wife and I are fairly well off and have been able to absorb the costs of the epi-pen without much issue, we know others who haven't. I feel that as the most powerful, richest, advanced and supposedly so decent and just country that we are, the ability to save the life of your child shouldn't be purely linked to your salary, or "It's called capitalism." I guess that's a difference between you and I that I'll accept and resign from further debate.

Mylan has shown to have zero concern outside of profits as they've removed access to drugs by buying up generics, taking them off the market and then jacking up the price of their drugs. Yes that's capitalism, yes it's not illegal, but they're just the growing trend in this country that pure capitalism works, doesn't matter how many less fortunate die in the process.

I understand completely. They've essentially created a monopoly on the drug with more information being brought to light every day. Couple good things have already come out of this, pens are available in schools now (or will be very soon). They also subsidize majority of "cost" in developing countries, whatever that number ends up being. However, we shouldn't ignore those on our own soil who need drugs like this and are being told to either pay 10x it should cost or do without. My first thought was this all part of our ridiculous healthcare "system" - no doubt it needs major reform. Realizing that Mylan had a pretty big hand in all this as well.

Fat-B, we're not all that different. Hope your family's healthy and the cost of their care comes down.

Mylan reports pre-tax epi pen profits 60% higher than reported to congress. SMH