Mylan isn't alone: 11 drugmakers with off-the-charts pricing power

Matt Krantz, USA TODAY 12:12 p.m. EDT August 25, 2016

Mylan (MYL) is drawing fire for passing off massive price hikes for its EpiPen allergy treatment. But it’s far from being the drug company with the most pricing power.

Gilead (GILD), Biogen (BIIB) and Amgen (AMGN), along with eight other drug giants in the Standard & Poor's 500, enjoyed off-the-charts pricing power on their products relative to costs — far beyond Mylan's, according to a USA TODAY analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Each of these drug companies' operating profit margins, a measure of how much a company's revenue turns to profit, hit 25% or more over the past 12 months excluding interest and taxes. That means these companies kept 25 cents of every dollar in revenue after paying operating costs. That blows away the 15.8% profit margin of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index and the 20% profit margin at Mylan.

Drug pricing has become a political lightning rod as government officials take note. Martin Shkreli, as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals orchestrated a 5,000% price hike of a medication called Daraprim, used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease that affects AIDS patients, pregnant women and others who have weakened immune systems. The decision sparked fury from from patients, medical professionals and politicians.

After all the negative attention, it's gotten in recent days Mylan, on Thursday, announced a plan that would offer discounts to some patients..

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]