So the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Mylan, Heather Bresch, has decided to up the price of an epi-pen (injector pen containing epinephrine for severe allergic reactions, say to bee stings) from roughly $100 all the way up to the $600 neighborhood, without changing the formula or the injectors. An epi-pen (and, for kids, the epi-pen junior) contains somewhere around $1 of actual medicine.
Let’s look at Heather Bresch, shall we?
She received her M.B.A. from West Virginia University. Retroactively, even though she hadn’t earned the credits for the degree (to the tune of being 22 credits short). But her father was governor of the state when it happened. This was such an egregious offense that the president of the university, Mike Garrison (a schoolmate and former lobbyist for her) was forced to resign afterwards.
She started out in data entry. Worked her way up to CEO in 2007.
Compared to when she took over that position, her personal salary has increased 700%. She recently reported an earning of $19million.
There’s some behind the scenes shit, too, like reincorporating in Europe to avoid a “hostile takeover” and benefit from lax tax laws.
Bottom line: more people are going to die because this rich cunt decided that her lifestyle is just a little more important than whether or not children die from allergies that could have been treated before.
I’m glad that Hillary Clinton has called for her to drop the price. And it looks like there may be a Senate inquiry into it.
CEOs like this are what is not great about America.
I HATE that the CEO of a company makes millions of dollars because of, lets face it, family connections. CEOs that did not start the company, and had nothing to do with the growth of the company, are HIRED at a million plus. What do they bring to the table? An MBA from Yale and a good golf game. Both acquired by having a rich father.
Now I’m the CEO of a large old American company. I don’t know jack shit about what it does. But I notice that that old factory in New Jersey barely turns a profit. AND they have like thousands of high paid employees. Close it! Stock prices rise for a year, HUGE BONUS! What else can I sell??? I don’t care about the future of the company cause I’m moving on in 2 years. And I certainly don’t care about those employees that are never going to have another job like that. Its their fault for not having a father like mine.
You have to wonder what drives a person like this. To look at the definition of a humanitarian and then decide you want to be the complete opposite of that.
Receive a faux MBA, reincorporate overseas, drive up prices on a life saving device, give self a massive pay raise.
What other answer could she give when asked ‘why’ besides “Because I can.”
YES! I have been pissed off about this shit. My little sister, (my wifes little sister), needs to have two in the home and with her at all times. Her parents can not afford to replace them every year now. Its ridiculous! Now we all are going to have to save up money and chip in to make sure she has them. I don’t know about you guys, but i’m not rolling in cash and this really is going to have an impact on our lives. Just plain and simple greed.
That bitch has the ovaries to blame Obamacare? Why, because it doesn’t involve telling them “this price is unacceptable”? It sure isn’t because it’s raised the costs of making Epipens.
There is an alternative. Epipen is based on the device (which has a patent), not the medicine. So you can use an Adrenaclick, but you need the doctor to specially prescribe it and not the Epipen:
I wonder if Hillary will return the $250k donation to the Clinton foundation that came from the EpiPen company? Maybe Senator Joe Manchin (D, West Virginia) can open the hearings. She won’t refuse a summons from her daddy will she?
In the meantime, alternative injection devices should get a fast-track review from the FDA - and we can see the EpiPen market share collapse.
I just got my EpiPens (3 2-packs, more than I’ve gotten in the past) and it cost me $50 total. I wonder, however, what my insurance company paid or if they’re insulated from the price rise. I’ll certainly be looking into alternatives next year.
There usually isn’t a real free market in pharmaceuticals and medical devices in the first place—because of patents, FDA approvals, other regulatory and nonregulatory barriers to entry, incomplete information I’m the marketplace, the intervening factor of s prescriber, insurance companies, and other factors—so it doesn’t make sense to let them set prices as if it were a true competitive market.
And as a policy matter you just might not want to restrict access to cheap-to-produce lifesaving treatments based on arbitrary pricing.
