House oversight asks for private meeting with EpiPen maker

The House Oversight Committee has asked for a private meeting with executives from the pharmaceutical company Mylan, which is facing a public outcry over the price of a lifesaving allergy injection.

Known by the brand name EpiPen, the device now retails for roughly $600 per two-pack. In 2007, the year Mylan acquired the drug, it cost $100 per pack.

{mosads}Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have chided the company for the price hike and called for investigations by the Federal Trade Commission. Some have asked for congressional inquiries into the matter.

On Monday, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), sent a letter to Mylan’s CEO with specific inquiries about the EpiPen pricing.

While no official congressional hearings have yet been scheduled, Chaffetz and Cummings are asking the company’s CEO, Heather Bresch, for a non-public briefing “no later than 5:00 p.m. on September 6, 2016,” the letter reads.

The committee leaders asked that Mylan turn over by Sept. 12 documents that detail profits and expenses related to manufacturing of the drug, in addition to information on research and development and marketing. They also asked the company to provide its state and federal lobbying disclosure forms from 2007 to 2016, among other things.

From 2007 through mid-2016, the company spent more than $11 million to lobby the federal government, according to a tally of disclosures filed to the Senate.

Bresch is the daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who says he shares some of the concerns of his colleagues about the price hike.

“Her heart is pure as can be and she’s the most generous person i know,” Manchin told a local West Virginia news outlet about his daughter.

He said the problem isn’t within Mylan itself, but with in the larger issues within the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries at large.

“You know, what people should be asking is why are prescription drugs so costly?” Manchin said. “All of them. And with that being said, on the EpiPen controversy, it sells for $608. Everyone’s been led to believe that Mylan gets all $608. Mylan gets $274.”

The price of the EpiPen has stirred outrage because the drug is essential for people with severe allergies. Unused injections expire after one year.

In 2012 and 2013, Mylan successfully lobbied on legislation that encouraged schools to keep EpiPens on hand for students.

“While families and schools have struggled to keep up with your company’s unreasonable price increases, Mylan has profited richly from its pricing strategy,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter.

Mylan has tried to mollify critics by offering coupons to some customers that reduce the cost.

It also announced that it would be releasing a generic version of the device that contains a single dose of auto-injected epinephrine, a form of adrenaline that allows a person having an allergic reaction to ease symptoms while working to get medical treatment.

Lawmakers have decried the efforts as not going far enough, with Cummings saying last week that the coupons were nothing more than “a PR move.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that the $300 savings cards offered by the company only cover those paying for EpiPens out of pocket.

“The price is what Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies pay. It’s what patients who don’t get assistance cards pay. And when drug companies offer patient assistance cards, it’s usually not clear how many patients benefit,” he said in a statement last week.

Grassley also sent a letter to Mylan last Monday, asking it to justify the price increase. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) — whose daughter relies on EpiPens — wrote last week to the FTC asking the agency to investigate whether the company violated anti-trust laws regarding the sale of the product. It is currently the only company that sells an epinephrine auto-injector. 

— This post was updated at 6:53 p.m.