Democrat Price Gouging? Say It Ain't So

[Ron Burgundy]

Mylan Drugs jacks EpiPen price 500% while CEO gets $16 million raise. The CEO is Heather Bresch, daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV. The same Heather Bresch at the center of a scandal at WVU when she was given an MBA she didn't earn while her dad was the governor of WV. She is also a big donor to, ta-da, the Clinton Foundation.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/24/politics/epipens-congress-response/

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/con...elves-raises-they-hiked-epipen-prices-n636591

But let a Republican do the same thing....

 

[DBS1970]

I did not know all that about her. I did know that she took over and jacked the price up to the max of what the insurance companies would pay and then gave herself a huge raise. Of course I know the real reason for this is because they are the only company that meats the standards for the injector pen that the government puts in place and it costs $50 million to get a drug through FDA trails so no one else wants to get into the market.

 

[CharlesDavenport]

Umpossible. Democrats fight for the little guy and are against big evil corporations. And affordable healthcare is one of their pillars.

 

[Superman]

Trump once knowingly tried to pass an expired coupon to purchase vienna sausages and saltine crackers.
THAT is the real story.

 

[Superman]

and, NOW Shillary wants something done...

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/...-for-mylan-to-lower-epipen-price-amid-outcry/

“It’s wrong when drug companies put profits ahead of patients, raising prices without justifying the value behind them,” she said in a statement Wednesday that called for Mylan to lower its price.

to which Mylan replied...

Mylan didn’t immediately comment on Mrs. Clinton’s remarks, but in a statement earlier this week said it makes the EpiPen available free to more than 65,000 U.S. schools. It attributed some of the recent price shocks to people’s participation in high-deductible insurance plans.

 

[ark steel]

hmm, subsidizing a good and limiting the ability of competitors to enter the market raises prices. Coincidently, to the highest amount insurance companies (i.e. the subsidizers) will pay?

interesting. who could have guessed this might happen?

Note that articles I have read notes that many low income families and those with the right insurance get it for free.

 

[IndySteel]

That's discrimination! Allergic Lives Matter!

 

[Stryker]

Ron, a Republican did the same thing, only the price hike was even more egregious:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/b...se-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?_r=0

Either way, this is wrong to do no matter what your beliefs are.

 

[ark steel]

Ron, a Republican did the same thing, only the price hike was even more egregious:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/b...se-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?_r=0

Either way, this is wrong to do no matter what your beliefs are.

is the son of a GOP Congressperson? I don't even know if he is Republican.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/11/health/big-pharma-presidential-politics/

I don't know if it true, but:

Nancy Retzlaff, Turing's chief commercial officer, testified at the hearing that the hiked prices didn't affect customers, most of whom paid a penny per pill.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/04/news/companies/martin-shkreli-hearing/

https://pjmedia.com/trending/2016/02/05/pharma-bad-boy-martin-shkreli-is-a-big-democrat-donor/

For decades, there wasn’t any competition to Daraprim for the simple reason that there wasn’t much money to be made selling it. In the face of his humongous price hike, the obvious solution is for someone to undercut his price—especially since Dara­prim is fairly simple to make—but thanks to the complex rules governing drug sales in the U.S., that’s not so easy. A potential competitor would have to go through the arduous process of getting approval from the Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) by showing that its drug is equivalent to Dara­prim. This is difficult, because Shkreli’s company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, tightly controls its distribution, making it hard to get the samples to do testing.

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/12/martin-shkreli-pharmaceuticals-ceo-interview

The last sentence is silly. Someone who has a prescription can get them. Get some and test them.

 

[ZonaBurgh]

Part of this falls on the Feds.
Drugs like quinine and colchicine are no longer available because they are so old there's not required studies that they are safe and effective.

Does quinine help leg cramps? Yep! as does colchicine with gout. FDA said if companies wanted to keep marketing, they would have to submit a New Drug Application. That would cost them a boat load of money, so they stop making the drug.


Over the last 10 years there have been a number of drugs that have gone from pennies to hundreds of dollars.

There is a generic form of EpiPen made, but it's stupid expensive as well. I'll have to look, maybe Mylan makes it as well.

 

[ark steel]

There is a generic form of EpiPen made, but it's stupid expensive as well. I'll have to look, maybe Mylan makes it as well.

Everything I found on the EpiPen was that there were no alternatives because those who tried to market them couldn't meet the requirements. The main two are:

1. Never fails to deliver the medication;
2. Never delivers less than the needed amount.

1 seems to be necessary (unless you always carry two pens), but hard to meet.
2 also seems necessary, but should be easier to meet.

Once company (Israeli, I think) couldn't meet #2. No idea if they also couldn't meet #1.

 

[DBS1970]

Part of this falls on the Feds.
Drugs like quinine and colchicine are no longer available because they are so old there's not required studies that they are safe and effective.

Does quinine help leg cramps? Yep! as does colchicine with gout. FDA said if companies wanted to keep marketing, they would have to submit a New Drug Application. That would cost them a boat load of money, so they stop making the drug.


Over the last 10 years there have been a number of drugs that have gone from pennies to hundreds of dollars.

There is a generic form of EpiPen made, but it's stupid expensive as well. I'll have to look, maybe Mylan makes it as well.

$50 million dollars to get it thorough FDA trials. On drugs that sell for a few dollars a dose thats a losing proposition.