The EpiPen is a necessity for people who are at risk of anaphylaxis, a life-threatening type of allergic reaction. They’re a common item in kids’ backpacks and home first-aid kits, and the name has become a generic term that refers to epinephrine auto-injectors. Only the product itself is only available as a brand-name product that costs hundreds of dollars.
Our colleagues over at Consumers Union, the policy and mobilization arm of our parent company Consumer Reports, join members of Congress and New York state’s Attorney General in calling for an investigation into alleged anticompetitive practices by Mylan, which include giving schools free EpiPens but asking them not to purchase competing products to replenish the freebies.
In a letter addressed to the Commissioners of the FTC [PDF], CU’s policy experts lay out evidence that Mylan acted to prevent competing epinephrine auto-injectors from reaching the market, and to keep customers (like schools) from purchasing the competing products that are on the market.
“Because our review of the facts has produced no legitimate justification for this
inordinate price hike with regard to EpiPens, this appears to be a calculated decision by Mylan to exploit the monopoly power that the company holds to enrich itself and its corporate executives” at the expense of consumers who carry the pens to prevent life-threatening reactions, they point out.
Consumers Union letter to the FTC urging an investigation into reported EpiPen price increase [Consumers Union]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist