U.S. lawmakers demand information on EpiPen price increase

And the CEO of Mylan, Heather Bresch (maiden name Manchin) is the daughter of US Senator Joe Manchin, D - WV. That makes things a little uncomfortable with his Dem colleagues in the Senate who are calling for hearings. I'm sure that massive increase in price for the EpiPen goes directly to Heather's subsistence level $19,000,000 salary. Somebody's got to pay for it!

They did something, that's why it's an issue.

They created a market for a product that wasnt an issue therefore their artificial monopoly just gave another CEO 19M.

This pissed me off. No God damn reason in hell why the prices of these things need to say rocket.

Let's be clear. This company is doing a shameful thing, raising the price for a medication that many, many people need. Let's also understand that the government created the regulatory environment that enables their monopoly, and blocks potential competitors from entering the market and driving down prices. I don't think we need more regulation to solve this one. Just better regulations. Or fewer regulations. But clearly the FDA and by extension this and previous administrations have enabled this scenario.

http://reason.com/blog/2016/08/25/want-to-reduce-the-price-of-epipens-appr

The Wall Street Journal detailed extensively as Clinton threw herself into the conflict that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has made it very difficult for competitors to enter the marketplace and push prices downward. Epinephrine is cheap and EpiPens have been around for decades. Their prices should be trending downward not upward. But the FDA's complicated (and ambiguous) process of approving other drug delivery systems has kept competitors off the market. And to be clear, there are other companies trying to participate and demonstrate they can provide safe alternatives:

Free said:

jeffbr said:

Let's be clear. This company is doing a shameful thing, raising the price for a medication that many, many people need. Let's also understand that the government created the regulatory environment that enables their monopoly, and blocks potential competitors from entering the market and driving down prices. I don't think we need more regulation to solve this one. Just better regulations. Or fewer regulations. But clearly the FDA and by extension this and previous administrations have enabled this scenario.

http://reason.com/blog/2016/08/25/want-to-reduce-the-price-of-epipens-appr

The Wall Street Journal detailed extensively as Clinton threw herself into the conflict that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has made it very difficult for competitors to enter the marketplace and push prices downward. Epinephrine is cheap and EpiPens have been around for decades. Their prices should be trending downward not upward. But the FDA's complicated (and ambiguous) process of approving other drug delivery systems has kept competitors off the market. And to be clear, there are other companies trying to participate and demonstrate they can provide safe alternatives:

This isn't about competition and capitalism, and making it about it does not solve the increasing fleecing of consumers through big pharma and healthcare costs.

Huh? If price has anything to do with it, and the company is setting the price, you might want to rethink your comment, as it seems to be out of touch with reality.

I am not trying to exonerate the big pharmaceutical company who is fleecing the consumer. But I'm also pointing out that many of the pro-big govt folks will be running to the govt calling for increased regulation as the solution to this problem, when it is specifically that govt regulation which has created the economic environment in which the company has a monopoly and can act in unethical ways. Epinephrine is cheap. The EpiPen is just a delivery mechanism. If the FDA got out of the way and let other makers of delivery systems into the market, prices would plunge.

mace1229 said:

How many important drugs were only funded, tested and created because of the hopes of making millions? I don't know the answer, but I'm guessing it is at least several if not many. It sucks they get that greedy to this point, but I assume it pushes development as well. Who's going to risk tens of millions in research to just make a few hundred thousand?

Or almost all.

There needs to be a balance. Without the potential of making a big profit, I bet we wouldn't have half the drugs we do. But who really needs a $19m salary?
From my experience health insurance was just as bad. My employer switched health coverage. My wife takes medication which is about 3 grand a prescription without insurance. So no way we can afford it if insurance doesn't approve. The new insurance threw us so many loop holes before they would cover it, she ended up going without it for 3 months.
Aside from the prescription, they required a doctor authorization (isn't that what a prescription is?). They gave us a number to provide to our doctor to call. We would call our insurance regularly to make sure it went through and all they would say is "it can take 2 weeks to process, so its not in the computer yet."
After the 2 weeks it changed to "no we don't have anything from your doctor. We gave you the wrong number last time, give him this number."
Another 2-3 weeks went by and same thing, but this time they said to fax it instead. Same thing, another 2-3 weeks went by before giving us a third and different number.
A few days later I called in to check on the status when I got the normal "it can take 2-3 weeks to process, so its not in our computer yet."
I unloaded on them on the phone, explaining how we kept getting the runaround and my wife and gone without her medication for 3 months now as a result, medication needed to control otherwise very debilitating arthritis, and ended the conversation with "if it isn't here tomorrow, you will be hearing from an attorney on my behalf." After than comment I was put on hold for about 30 seconds and she came back and said "it's on the way."
Ridiculous it had to come down to a threat. Our doctor said unfortunately they get that all the time, they drag their feet so they don't have to pay for expensive medication.
How do those people sleep too?

mace1229 said:

There needs to be a balance. Without the potential of making a big profit, I bet we wouldn't have half the drugs we do. But who really needs a $19m salary?
From my experience health insurance was just as bad. My employer switched health coverage. My wife takes medication which is about 3 grand a prescription without insurance. So no way we can afford it if insurance doesn't approve. The new insurance threw us so many loop holes before they would cover it, she ended up going without it for 3 months.
Aside from the prescription, they required a doctor authorization (isn't that what a prescription is?). They gave us a number to provide to our doctor to call. We would call our insurance regularly to make sure it went through and all they would say is "it can take 2 weeks to process, so its not in the computer yet."
After the 2 weeks it changed to "no we don't have anything from your doctor. We gave you the wrong number last time, give him this number."
Another 2-3 weeks went by and same thing, but this time they said to fax it instead. Same thing, another 2-3 weeks went by before giving us a third and different number.
A few days later I called in to check on the status when I got the normal "it can take 2-3 weeks to process, so its not in our computer yet."
I unloaded on them on the phone, explaining how we kept getting the runaround and my wife and gone without her medication for 3 months now as a result, medication needed to control otherwise very debilitating arthritis, and ended the conversation with "if it isn't here tomorrow, you will be hearing from an attorney on my behalf." After than comment I was put on hold for about 30 seconds and she came back and said "it's on the way."
Ridiculous it had to come down to a threat. Our doctor said unfortunately they get that all the time, they drag their feet so they don't have to pay for expensive medication.
How do those people sleep too?

Insurance companies regularly abuse the prior authorization system, but in general, it is a very important step/requirement for consumers