Follow Up On EpiPen Price Hikes

A quick follow-up to yesterday’s post about the rising cost of EpiPens. It turns out that the CEO of Mylan, the company that currently makes the EpiPen and has raised the price of the item by over 600% since 2009, is Heather Brescher. Brescher is the daughter of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. And as the price of the EpiPen has risen, so has Brescher’s compensation. In 2007, she was paid nearly $2.5 million in 2009 and today she makes nearly $19 million. Brescher was also involved in another seeming unethical ploy back in 2008. Mrs. Brescher was awarded an MBA from West Virginia University (WVU) even though she did not have enough academic credits to earn that degree. As it turned out, Mr. Brescher was a long time friend of the president of WVU who was subsequently force to resign when the scandal came out. It should also be noted that the former CEO of Mylan was not only a major contributor to Senator Joe Manchin but also the largest donor to WVU, which also may have influenced the decision to award Mrs. Brescher her degree.

This is another classic example of price-gouging that has become commonplace in the health care and pharmaceutical industries. When companies have a monopoly on a certain product or drug, there is nothing to stop them from these outrageous price increases. And restrictive patent laws just add to these companies’ monopoly power. Yes, I know the pharmaceutical companies say that the research for new drugs is outrageously expensive and they need “protection” in order to recoup their expenses. But EpiPens have been around a long time and they are essentially a delivery device. And other drugs that have seen tremendous price increases are basically drugs that are very specialized and do not have a wide market, allowing one make to dominate the market. The costs for these drugs’ development have been recouped long ago. But people like Heather Brescher come in, buy these products, and then jack up the prices. If there isn’t some kind of regulation to rein in these health-profiteers, then there should be.