The Senator’s Daughter Who Raised Prices on Anti-Allergy EpiPen

[gotbeer]

3 hours ago, Kurt Swanson said:

Martin Shkreli said he sees no problem with this.....no he really did. 

 

Wait, isn't that the hedge fund guy that bought a cancer drug or something, and then increased the price by like 7000%? 

They should throw her and him in a pit.  Throw a knife in the middle, and say see you both in 2 weeks, and lock the door.

[ScruffytheJanitor]

3 hours ago, Adam said:

But if the goal is to usher in a single payer system it wasn't supposed to work and I'm guessing most pro-progress folks are okay with the means and methods to expedite that process.

I think you give them too much credit: most people were just like "Affordable Care Act? Care will be more affordable? Who could argue with that?" Maybe I read the situation wrong, but people actually believed this nonsense would work.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

The Hepatitis C drug Harvoni costs $900 for a course of treatment in India. In the US, $84,000. As long as drug companies are allowed to make all of their hay here, this will keep happening.

[gotbeer]

33 minutes ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

The Hepatitis C drug Harvoni costs $900 for a course of treatment in India. In the US, $84,000. As long as drug companies are allowed to make all of their hay here, this will keep happening.

At that price.  Have a nice vacation in India, and get cured of Hepatitis C. 

[Puget Sound Angel]

Trump said, "What do I care?"

[Vegas Halo Fan]

[Ray McKigney]

This is crazy:

"'EpiPen prices aren't the only thing to jump at Mylan,' NBC News reported. According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Bresch's total compensation went from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068 from 2007 to 2015. That's a striking 671 percent increase. That period coincides with the time when Mylan acquired the rights to EpiPens and steadily hiked the average wholesale price from about $55 to $320. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported earlier this year that her corporate jet use hit $310,312, including both personal and business trips. Another Mylan executive, Robert J. Coury, was called out by The Wall Street Journal in 2012 for having a side business that is a record label that promotes his son's music career and for taking the jet frequently to cities that coincided with his son's concerts."

 

 

[Ray McKigney]

5 minutes ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

You're not a patient, you're a customer.

[arch stanton]

7 minutes ago, Ray McKigney said:

You're not a patient, you're a customer.

I believe the word you were looking for is hostage. 

[Ray McKigney]

6 minutes ago, arch stanton said:

I believe the word you were looking for is hostage. 

Yeah, that's probably more appropriate.

[mrwicked]

i wonder how you counter this.

im all for free markets and such, and giving as little control to government morons, but you have to regulate something that implies death if people don't get it.

you can't just basically say what that comic says obviously.

do you just nationalize certain medicines? do you put a ceiling on price? what is the price, and who sets it?

but then if im a pharma company, its more lucrative to do R&D in areas that aren't capped.

do you give them subsidies? basically, have the government cover the difference? but then of course the government now is liable to over spend because the company sets the price.

tricky.

[Spirit]

On August 24, 2016 at 2:04 PM, Adam said:

No competitors allowed. 

 

https://mises.org/blog/lack-epipen-competitors-fdas-fault

 

Free markets are great if they're allowed to exist.  As Adam's article points out, that may not have been the case here.

 

 

[Jason]

On August 24, 2016 at 9:02 PM, wopphil said:

My favorite part of all this is that the CEO is the daughter of a Democrat senator. The supposed party of the common man, the anti-corruption, anti-big business folk, fu**ing us over just as hard as their Republican counterparts.

I wonder how much she has contributed towards Hillary's campaign 

[Taylor]

It's time to bust out YK's landfill again.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Epinephrine out of a glass vial drawn up in a syringe costs about $3 per dose. The only thing unique about EpiPen is the delivery system. Nothing to draw up, and you inject it by pressing a button. The medication itself is neither unique nor expensive. This is a cash grab, plain and simple. For free, I can teach anyone how to draw medication out of a vial and inject it using a tuberculin syringe. 

[NJHalo]

5 hours ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

Epinephrine out of a glass vial drawn up in a syringe costs about $3 per dose. The only thing unique about EpiPen is the delivery system. Nothing to draw up, and you inject it buy pressing a button. The medication itself is neither unique nor expensive. This is a cash grab, plain and simple. For free, I can teach anyone how to draw medication out of a vial and inject it using a tuberculin syringe. 

We draw up the syringes every time we have a nurse first dosing a patient in the home. Like you said, about $3 per dose, and 15 cents for the syringe. We give it 30 days stability dating before it is no good. So even if you replaced it every month for a year, you are talking $36 per year vs $600 for EpiPen

[Vegas Halo Fan]

EpiPen plays on people's fear of using syringes. They aren't complicated devices. It took me about ten minutes during my first semester of nursing school to master my shot technique.

[Jay]

http://nypost.com/2016/08/26/hillary-others-stood-silent-as-epipen-price-soared/

Hillary, others stood silent as EpiPen price soared

When the EpiPen was acquired by Mylan in 2007, it was selling for less than $100 for a two-pack.

Two years later, Mylan was scoring political points by teaming up with the Clinton Foundation on an HIV project — whose aim, ironically, was to lower the prices of medications in developing countries with drug-resistant HIV.

The firm also contributed $250,000 to the foundation.

Six months ago, with the price of EpiPens soon to hit $600, Joel Johnson, a Mylan lobbyist, hosted a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton in Washington that drew John Podesta, the campaign manager.

But after public uproar over the price hikes, Clinton finally denounced the company on Wednesday...

[Blarg]

On ‎8‎/‎26‎/‎2016 at 2:32 PM, mrwicked said:

i wonder how you counter this.

im all for free markets and such, and giving as little control to government morons, but you have to regulate something that implies death if people don't get it.

you can't just basically say what that comic says obviously.

do you just nationalize certain medicines? do you put a ceiling on price? what is the price, and who sets it?

but then if im a pharma company, its more lucrative to do R&D in areas that aren't capped.

do you give them subsidies? basically, have the government cover the difference? but then of course the government now is liable to over spend because the company sets the price.

tricky.

Mylan isn't doing R&D they are just buying up rights to drugs already on the market and jacking prices up. In this case it's not even the serum it's the applicator.

[Tank]

So what's the solution to this kind of price gouging? Does congress have authority to step in and act in the people's best interests? Does someone or some group file a class action lawsuit? Do people simply go for the ten dollar alternative?

our school did first aid training in June and we all know how to use the EpiPen. I'm not sure many of us would feel comfy giving an injection instead.

[AngelsLakersFan]

On August 26, 2016 at 2:32 PM, mrwicked said:

i wonder how you counter this.

im all for free markets and such, and giving as little control to government morons, but you have to regulate something that implies death if people don't get it.

you can't just basically say what that comic says obviously.

do you just nationalize certain medicines? do you put a ceiling on price? what is the price, and who sets it?

but then if im a pharma company, its more lucrative to do R&D in areas that aren't capped.

do you give them subsidies? basically, have the government cover the difference? but then of course the government now is liable to over spend because the company sets the price.

tricky.

I'm not sure that is the case here. As far as I can tell they are using FDA regulations and some seemingly inexplicable anti trust exemption to maintain a monopolistic position in the market. 

I was under the impression that companies are not typically allowed to buy out all of their competition, but it appears that this is the Mylan business model.

[NJHalo]

1 hour ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

I'm not sure that is the case here. As far as I can tell they are using FDA regulations and some seemingly inexplicable anti trust exemption to maintain a monopolistic position in the market. 

I was under the impression that companies are not typically allowed to buy out all of their competition, but it appears that this is the Mylan business model.

I don't think they are blatantly buying up the competition. It is a calculated plan of lowering their price until the competition no longer finds it profitable, so they discontinue that product line. This leaves Mylan as the last man standing, and in a sense, holding an invisible patent on a generic drug. They now are able to steadily raise their price.

i have also seen them discontinue product lines, and allow a competitor dominate a market, in return for the same competitor doing the same thing for them. A Little you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours. Delta and United just got caught doing the same thing with the NY area air routes and gates, except tbey got in trouble. 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

On 8/26/2016 at 2:32 PM, mrwicked said:

i wonder how you counter this.

im all for free markets and such, and giving as little control to government morons, but you have to regulate something that implies death if people don't get it.

you can't just basically say what that comic says obviously.

do you just nationalize certain medicines? do you put a ceiling on price? what is the price, and who sets it?

but then if im a pharma company, its more lucrative to do R&D in areas that aren't capped.

do you give them subsidies? basically, have the government cover the difference? but then of course the government now is liable to over spend because the company sets the price.

tricky.

This has worked rather like deregulation of the airline industry. The larger companies engage in predatory pricing, force competitors out and then swallow their assets. In the airline industry, large carriers cut fares on competing routes to the point that they were losing money. The competitor had to match, the larger company could sustain the losses, and the smaller carrier went under. The larger company then had a monopoly again, and jacked up fares. 

We were told that airline deregulation would result in more competition. There are fewer airlines in the US now than at any time since the early years of the industry, and almost every major airport has a dominant carrier. A lot of storied names in the industry have disappeared, through either bankruptcy or mergers.

Regulation is not always a dirty word. Free market works best for the largest companies, because they have the capital to manipulate it to their favor.