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Price of Epi Pens skyrockets

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2016 1:24 pm
by themanintheseersuckersuit
Heather Bresch, whose company raised the price of EpiPens by more than 400%, was rewarded for with a 671% raise.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... ign=buffer

Ms. Bresch is the daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia

Re: Price of Epi Pens skyrockets

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2016 1:35 pm
by jarnon
This seems worse than previous drug scandals. In most cases, the companies spent years and millions of dollars discovering, developing and testing new medications. But Mylan is charging hundreds for a product that costs them just a few bucks.

If a competitor designs an alternative epinephrine injector, the FDA should fast-track it.

Re: Price of Epi Pens skyrockets

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2016 1:54 pm
by SpacemanSpiff
IIRC, the development of the Epi-Pen (or perhaps its predecessor) came about in the late 50s and early 60s as a device so that the epinephrine could be shot one-handed through a pressurized flight suit in case the pilot/astronaut started to black out. I remember seeing one on display at Marshall in the late 1960s; the difference (and it was one that freaked out a kid afraid of these things) was that the needle was about an inch and a quarter long when extended; the epi-pen is more like three-eights of an inch.

Given that it came to be as a part of a government project to begin with, perhaps it's time for the government to pull it back under the government's control (eminent domain, perhaps?)

Re: Price of Epi Pens skyrockets

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2016 2:12 pm
by themanintheseersuckersuit
jarnon wrote:This seems worse than previous drug scandals. In most cases, the companies spent years and millions of dollars discovering, developing and testing new medications. But Mylan is charging hundreds for a product that costs them just a few bucks.

If a competitor designs an alternative epinephrine injector, the FDA should fast-track it.
If a competitor designs an alternative epinephrine injector, the FDA should get out of the way

Re: Price of Epi Pens skyrockets

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2016 3:51 pm
by SportsFan68
What can we do about it, write a letter to Sen. Manchin saying his kid is a greedie?

Last time I bought aspirin, a bottle of 500 325mg cost me something like $1.25. Now the cheapie WalMart falling prices price is $3.64. Bayer low-dose enteric coated aspirin, 300 of them, costs $11.98. SteelersFan buys the generic 81mg, 300 of them, $4.00 -- used to cost less than the 325 mg stuff when it was "baby aspirin," but now it saves your life, so the price goes up and up way beyond inflation.

One of my friends is allergic to bee strings -- untreated, the next one might kill her. She's buying the epi-pen even with a 400% markup.

I ask again, what can we do about it?

Re: Price of Epi Pens skyrockets

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2016 6:54 pm
by themanintheseersuckersuit
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/04/25/ ... -earn-mba/
The COO of generics manufacturer Mylan was improperly awarded an executive MBA by West Virginia University, an investigative panel ruled this week. The COO, Heather Bresch, is the daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin.

Re: Price of Epi Pens skyrockets

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 7:16 am
by Pastor Fireball
themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:Heather Bresch, whose company raised the price of EpiPens by more than 400%, was rewarded for with a 671% raise.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... ign=buffer

Ms. Bresch is the daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia
Manchin is also the only sitting senator out of 100 who isn't raising hell over the Shkreli-style price gouge. That's right--every single Republican senator (including fist-faced horse manure salesman Ted Cruz) is standing with every single Democratic senator not named Joe Manchin on this issue. Who said that bipartisanship was dead?

It is also interesting to note that Bresch made $19 million last year.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to- ... s-in-2015/