As the media is stirring up over the price hike of Mylan’s EpiPen—from $100 for a two-pen set in 2007 to more than $600 in 2016—a number of voices are speaking out on the issue, Martin Shkreli being one of them.
Most well-known for his endorsed price hike of Turing’s antiparasitic drug Daraprim (used to treat toxoplasmosis and prevent infections such as malaria and HIV) from $13.50 to $750 per tablet, Shkreli is making his opinions about EpiPen’s price tag known—even as Congress demands a response from Mylan as to why the price for the EpiPen has skyrocketed.
Shkreli defended Mylan to CBS News on Tuesday in an interview.
“Mylan is the good guy. They had one product, and they finally started making a little bit of money and everyone is going crazy over it,” said Shkreli. “It’s $300 a pack. $300. My iPhone is $700. . . . It’s $300 and 90 percent of Americans are insured.”
Shkreli is currently under indictment for securities fraud.
After Mylan’s competitor took a similar product off the market, Mylan now essentially holds a monopoly.
In a statement, Mylan said they “are committed to working with customers and payers to find solutions to meet the needs of the patients and families we serve.”
Furthermore, Mylan’s CEO, Heather Bresch, is expected to reap some serious benefits from EpiPen’s profits.
According to Forbes:
But that 400% increase in wholesale price for EpiPen looks meager compared to the whopping 671% salary increase company CEO Heather Bresch is reported to have enjoyed in that same time period. . . .
According to NBC News, Bresch earned $2,453,456 in 2007, the year of the EpiPen acquisition. In 2015, Bresch’s total compensation was $18,931,068. It may have even been slightly more than that and appears to have been even more than that in 2014.
Lead image photo credit: Intropin.
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Filed Under: Drug Discovery
