How the Maker of the Epipen Made Government its Ally

How the Maker of the Epipen Made Government its Ally
By James Surowiecki , SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

In most respects, Wednesday’s congressional hearing into Mylan Corp.’s steep price increases on the EpiPen followed an all-too-familiar script. Mylan’s C.E.O., Heather Bresch, was berated by legislators for the price hikes, and for her $18.9-million pay package.

Bresch tried, feebly, to explain that Mylan doesn’t actually make that much money from the EpiPen, and was careful never to offer the only real explanation for why the product costs six times as much as it did in 2007, namely that the company kept raising prices because it could.

The politicians got their soundbites. Bresch got to state her case. And, at day’s end, nothing meaningful had changed.

As Representative Elijah Cummings accurately put it in his opening statement, “The industry will take their punches. But then they go right ahead and keep raising their prices.”

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