In response to the skyrocketing price of EpiPen® and news reports that this price increase is limiting patient access to this life saving anecdote for allergic reactions, U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Claire McCaskill, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Aging Committee, sent a letter to Heather Bresch, the CEO of Mylan, to request answers and information about the company's drastic price increase of EpiPen® by 480% since 2008. The Senators also requested any analysis used by Mylan relating to the pricing or market share of EpiPen® since 2007, along with any information reviewed or generated by Mylan’s Board of Directors relating to the drug over the same period.
In their letter, Chairman Collins and Ranking Member McCaskill wrote that, “For much of its product life, EpiPen® was an affordable solution to a matter of life and death—it allowed countless Americans to save the lives of individuals suffering from allergic reactions that kill in a matter of minutes (a timeframe often too short to allow for trained medical intervention). But since Mylan acquired EpiPen® in 2007, it has implemented a cumulative 480-percent price increase.”
“We are concerned that these drastic price increases could have a serious effect on the health and well-being of every day Americans. There have been numerous accounts of individuals who are simply unable to afford this lifesaving medication and as a consequence have gone without, risked using an expired product, or resorted to uncertain (but less expensive) treatments… As leaders of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, we are particularly concerned that seniors have access to EpiPen® because, according to Mylan’s website, older Americans ‘may be at an increased risk of having a more severe anaphylactic reaction if they are exposed to biting and stinging insects.’”
The Senators’ letter requested that the briefing occur “at a mutually convenient time no later than two weeks from today.”
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