It isn’t often that the Republican and Democratic parties agree on anything. But congressmen from both sides were eager to unite in lambasting Heather Bresch, CEO of the Mylan drug company, for the scandalous cost of the company’s life-saving EpiPen allergy treatment.
At a congressional hearing in Washington last week, Rep. John Duncan, Republican representative of Tennessee’s second district, told Bresch:
“I’m a very conservative pro-business Republican, but I am sickened by what I have heard today.”
Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House committee on oversight and government reform, added vitriol to the chorus of disapproval. Referring to the fact that Bresch arrived for the Capitol Hill hearing by private jet, he said that Mylan and its executives would:
“Fly back to their mansions in their private jets and laugh all the way to the bank while our constituents suffer, file for bankruptcy, and watch their children get sicker, and in some cases die.”
As reported in Liberal America, Mylan has hiked the price of the EpiPen six times since it acquired exclusive U.S. manufacturing rights in 2007. From $56.64, it now retails at $317.82, an increase of 461 percent. In other countries, it can be bought for as little as a third of that price.
Meanwhile, in the same period, CEO Heather Bresch has seen her salary rise from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068, a 671 percent increase.
The EpiPen auto-injector delivers a crucial dose of epinephrine in cases of anaphylactic shock, which can cause serious injury or death if untreated, especially among child sufferers. Its purchase is simply essential and unavoidable for millions of Americans who live with severe allergies. An estimated 3.6 million EpiPen prescriptions were filled in the last year.
An apparently apologetic Bresch told the hearing that Mylan would soon introduce a cheaper, generic version of the EpiPen, and said:
“We never intended this.”
This remark was seized upon by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Republican committee chairman, who responded:
“You never anticipated this? You raised the price, what did you think was going to happen?”
Chaffetz went on to express skepticism over Mylan’s methods and motives, saying:
“Suddenly feeling the heat, Mylan has offered a generic version and cut the price in half, so that does beg the question, what was happening with that other $300?”
Chaffetz was especially tenacious in quizzing Bresch over the price and profitability of the new version. Watch that exchange here.
Featured image: Screenshot via C-Span YouTube video
