By Mari Curi
On Thursday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, received, and is still reviewing, a response from Mylan CEO Heather Bresch regarding the company’s 400 percent price hike for EpiPens, a portable pharmaceutical drug used to counteract deathly allergic reactions.
The response was to a letter Grassley sent on Aug. 22 asking Bresch how the price of EpiPens is determined, what the advertising budget for EpiPen is, what improvements have been made to the product, if there are patient-assistance programs, if the company has programs for assisting schools, and if so, how many schools use the programs.
In 2009, Mylan was charging around $100 for a package of two EpiPens. Today, the price is around $600. Mylan pays approximately $30 per device.
Mylan is offering a $300 coupon, still leaving the drug three times more expensive than its original price.
The increase has led politicians and patients to voice their frustrations not only in regards to Mylan but also to the government’s role in the market and how that affects health care in the United States.
Kirstin Sullivan of Ames has a 12-year-old son, Andrew, with a peanut allergy who describes his allergic reactions as “having a potato chip stuck in my throat.”
Sullivan, who has witnessed her son’s life-threatening allergy episodes, said she believes the best option is universal health care and that while the Affordable Care Act was a step in the right direction, it focuses too much on the marketplace and not enough on patient costs.
“People who don’t have insurance shouldn’t have to chose between buying groceries or buying an EpiPen,” she said. “I don’t think medicine should be a privilege; every one should have access to it.”
The high-school social studies teacher went on to reference John Adams’ philosophy on the greed inherent in human nature, saying regulations must exist to counter the expected actions of profit-seeking companies such as Mylan that increase prices at the expense of people’s lives.
Christopher Peters, a libertarian surgeon running for Congress in Iowa’s 2nd District on the Republican ticket, described Mylan’s price hike as “morally suspicious” but went on to say that the real culprit is government bureaucracy.
Mylan currently has a monopoly on EpiPens; there are virtually no other competitors in the market producing a similar product that could cause Mylan to lower its prices.
Peters pointed to the protection of patent rights that government bureaucracies such as the Food and Drug Administration grants to companies in an effort to stimulate competition.
Patent protection is supposed to give companies peace of mind that when they invest money in a technology, another company can’t replicate it and sell it at a cheaper price.
Peters said he doesn’t want to get rid of patents; instead, he wants to standardize the system in which everything is clearly defined because currently the system is giving companies the opportunity to take advantage of patent protection.
Mylan has taken advantage of the flawed system by participating in “ever greening,” a term used to describe when a company makes minor unsubstantial adjustments to its product allowing it to renew its patent and continue its monopoly.
“Patent protection is not a fundamental right, it’s an artificial right that we grant to encourage innovation,” Peters said. “If the rules in place are thwarting innovation, then we need to rethink intellectual property rights.”
For now, Peters said consumers should look to international markets such as Canada’s, which produce the same quality drugs at more affordable prices.