Ms. Bresch said the company’s latest actions would do the most to help patients where it mattered, by reducing their out-of-pocket costs. And she said that the $600 list price was necessary for the company to recoup its investment in the EpiPen, which includes raising awareness for severe allergic reaction and making improvements to the way the product works.So they advertise the living shit out of their product and their excuse for massive price hikes is to pay for the advertising?
As for "improvements", give me a fucking break. Epinephrine coasts a buck or two for the dose. The auto-injector is a mature technology, first developed by the government as a way to deliver antidotes for nerve gas. The EpiPen itself was developed about 40 years ago. Oh, they've tinkered with it now and then, but the major tinkering was done well over a decade ago. What they ahve been doing now is marketing the shit out of it.
No, what you have here is a greedy company that kept raising the price of a vital medication (or delivery device) and then, when they get called out for their greed, they blame the insurance companies for not blithely caving into their piracy. You want to know one reason why medical insurance is such a mess and why your rates keep going up? Pharma Sis is Exhibit "A" for that.
Pharma Sis's response has been to offer $300 off coupons, and it's probably a safe bet that few people will ultimately be eligible to redeem them. It's the same tactic that her brother-by-different-parents, Pharma Bro, rolled out when he was caught price-gouging.
Pirates, all.
They should be dealt with in the same way that pirates were once dealt with.
Lifelong Democrats ‘Trumpocrats’ break from Democratic Party to vote Trump in 2016
ReplyDeletehttp://commoncts.blogspot.com/2016/08/lifelong-democrats-trumpocrats-break.html
ps. Would you consider adding CC to your blogroll?
1. Consolidate the market to eliminate competition.
ReplyDelete2. Get the CEO's daddy to vote up a Senate bill saying that all schools should have some of these.
3. Profit!
CC, you picked a non-Trump post to ask. But letting that go:
ReplyDeleteHave you read my blog? I looked at yours and I have to wonder why a pro-Trump blogger would want to be associated with my blog. The kindest thing I've said about Trump is that he's a grifter. Here, see for yourself.
Having said that, I do have a reciprocal blogroll section, so if you'll link to me, I'll reciprocate.
Buncha handwringers, starting w Sen. Amy Klobuchar, want to hold hearings to see how such an awful came to pass, why EpiPen prices have skyrocketed.
ReplyDeleteBullshit. You don't hold hearings you dumbfucks, you send out the U.S. Marshals.
It’s time to seize the company outright, bring criminal charges against the executives, and make the EpiPens available at cost. The RICO laws were designed for action against gangsters. Why the hell be nice to people who are extorting us and are willing to kill people who don’t / can't submit?
We don’t need a pack of senators pretending they have to search for an answer – this is no mystery, it’s a direct in-your-face assault and the only answer to it is to squash the criminals responsible. IMMEDIATELY.
Hans:
ReplyDeleteThere are alternatives to EpiPens. Just not as convenient, and most doctors prescribe the pens because:
A. They used to be covered by insurances,
B. They are easier to use.
ANd I am saddened that you seem to think it is OK for a private company to have it's products taken from them....they aren't in business except to make money. They may be greedy, but it is their right.
Sad to see that you are such a socialist that you fee that the Feds should " seize the company outright, bring criminal charges against the executives, and make the EpiPens available at cost."
Hint: They have tried that with food in Venezuela...people are starving there now because NO ONE PRODUCES or HANDLES food because is no profit in it (in fact, many folks lost money once the government made em sell it at "cost".
You want to do that to our medical system? Obamacare has already started that process, but you want to do it to medical device suppliers? Really?
Folks like you are why we can't have nice things.
To be slightly fair, Mylan got the rights to Epipen (plus other stuff) in a $6.7b deal with Merck back in 2007, so they did have to recoup that somehow.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, the current controversy is a result of cashing-in on the clever marketing.