Drug company CEO Heather Bresch affectionately describes the humble EpiPen as her “baby,” a once-middling product that she turned into a blockbuster.
With aggressive advertising — and even more aggressive price hikes — Bresch has fostered the EpiPen into a bestseller that brings in more than $1 billion a year in revenue for Mylan Pharmaceuticals.
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I don’t agree, look at https://www.policygenius.com/blog/insurance-secret-uber-doesnt-want-know/
Sincerely, Shyla
On the exact day that this story became ‘breaking news’, the commercial with a young girl having a allergic reaction to peanuts at a party was removed from ABC. CBS, and NBC broadcasting’s, it was on all channels repetitiously.
The EpiPen requires medication that costs One Dollar and the remainder is for to pay for the convenience of having an untrained administer a shot that normally only requires a nurses training + shot can be administered thru clothing, $599.00 for packaging, sealed plastic administer pen, commercials and bonuses.
Simple Solution would-be inventing a refillable ( by trained pharmacist ) instead of yearly disposable, plastic dispenser, whose cost Should have been in the under $50.00 range!
Search first clause of the “First Amendment’ = Antitrust = before Taft – Hartly Act redefined the word Antitrust, that facilitated banks shedding governmental regulations. The leading First Amendment Founding Fathers stipulation’ affronting all the freedoms.
Big pharmacy used Opium to addict using pain pills then removed the pain pills ( forced by government = less income ) followed by news explaining how Heroin ( Opium ) has a street price of 1/10. Creating street friction growth.
Same reason for Viet Nam war = poppy crop’ whose harvesting ( doubled for 9 years strait = Afghanistan ), with the added rare mineral of lithium ( rechargeable batteries ) mined in Afghanistan, all wars are about commodities.
Consider how awful it would be if the Teva takeover were to occur. Teva, who is the leading generic (how do you say low cost) drug manufacturer in the world, and who’s CEO makes 1/6th of Mylan’s CEO, would possibly reduce the selling cost of the epipen, and of course the sole motivation for moving jobs would be eliminated.
Terrible terrible.
1.) Bresch is not well insured , if taken over she only gets about two years salary.
2.) Is there some law that says if you move jobs overseas, you cannot be overtaken via a hostile takeover?
3.) It is quite noble that they give the epipens to those families that insurance would already pay for them, but charge those patients where there is no insurance. Explain to me again why we charge $600 to those that need the help the most, but yet give it for free to those where the insurance pays…. Ohh yea, is that to fund part of the 647% increase over 8 years in the CEO’s almost 30 million dollar salary. NOTE GM’s CEO makes about the same amount as this CEO, for a company that earns about 10 Billion while employing 220,000 employees, compared to the small company mylan earning about 4.2 Billion while only creating about 20,000 jobs, of which are being move overseas I understand. I wonder if she is lowly paid due to the fact she is a woman. I understand there is quite the wage discrimination.
1) If her contract as CEO has stipulations for compensation for removal then she could make that much money, most CEOs do.
2) No but what the article said is by moving the “company” to Netherlands they have less risk of a hostile takeover from Teva. That doesn’t mean they have to ship jobs overseas for manufacturing.
3) I used to work at Merck. In my eight years at Merck they did layoffs twice a year, March and November. If the goal of the layoffs was to save money, which is what they tell their investors, then the C*Os could stand to lose a few mill from their pay checks, which could save a lot of jobs. They also did layoffs as a way to get rid of dead weight. The dead weight is typically people who have become too complacent in their jobs that they have subpar performance or never advance. It’s also a good way to defend against discrimination cases if the person let go has a harder time proving it when 10,000 other people were let go too.
Capitalism in check is good but unchecked, like it has been the past 30 years, has nearly killed off the middle class.
I am generally a fan of capitalism. The monetization of resources for the masses is generally good. However, the souless money mongering of big pharma at the expence of children’s lives is, in my estimatiom, unforgivable. As a physician tending to critically and terminally ill children, all I have to say is: “Shame on you.” Shame…that is what you and your company should feel when you lay your heads downs at night. Separate from corporate profit models, saveble children will die because of your profit motives. Let me be clear: children will die to pad your pockets, and those of your nameless shareholders. I hope you all live with that choice uncomfortably.
Epinephrine (adrenaline) is not a miracle drug of big pharma…it is a natural and life-saving substance that the human body makes. Having a lock on the supply chain and proprietary delivery mechanism does not make Milan an innovative discovery company (which I could respect), but a brutish profiteer using an essential basic medicine as a profit lever.
As a 1%er, as a parent, and as a medical caregiver to seriously ill children, MYLAN and BRESCH are now on my personal black list.
You are so right. I just wished President Obama held his ground and brought in generics from Canada to compete like he said he would, this probably wouldn’t happen. The Pharmaceutical companies donated $2 billion to the healthcare reform bill to avoid it and Obama foolishly agreed, not realizing they would simply raise their prices to get the money back from consumers. Although Obama’s intentions were good, he naively thought he can stop or control greedy millionaires from always wanting more at the expense of the poor or middle class. Anyone interested in bringing that back to life while this topic is hot?
Pharma companies donated about $85.00 billion and not $2.00 billion. Anyone would fall for it. Patients got shorted.
The way things have been going lately, she could end up the next surgeon general…. I mean why not… I’m sure she could find a pretend medical degree to go w/her pretend MBA…
This ^^^^
A friend said “karma” would level the field…. I laughed, just look at this “woman” and the rest of the 1%ers…. They are hyenas that ALWAYS end up on top….