Protocols: Mylan’s EpiPen strategy stirs fresh outrage over price gouging; a flailing Woodford halts big bonuses
Forget Martin Shkreli. The bad-guy role in the pharma world has now been handed to Mylan, which has been hit with a tsunami of media coverage about its price gouging habits involving the EpiPen. The decades old injection device needed to survive life-threatening allergic episodes was sold for $100 back in 2007, when Mylan bought it, and now goes for $608.61 after a series of steep price hikes. The price has risen so high, some parents can’t afford it any longer, and an online mob has assembled to digitally pillory Mylan. Mylan, of course, is following a tried and true practice in pharmaland, steadily hiking wholesale prices of old technology. Eli Lilly, among many others, has been doing exactly the same thing for quite some time. And with politicians focused on a presidential election year, fears continue to rise in the industry that elected officials may attempt to stop the practice. There are no laws preventing price gouging in biopharma, but some politicians are looking for the FTC to investigate monopoly pricing. Martin Shkreli got this controversy started with his decision to hike the price of an ancient therapy by more than 5000%. Soon after, Valeant become the poster child for price manipulation. And it has become a potent consumer issue that may well affect everyone in drug development, eventually.
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