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Mylan's Epic EpiPen Price Hike Wasn't About Greed -- It's Worse, Lawsuit Claims (arstechnica.com)

Posted by msmash on from the what's-happening dept.

Mylan engaged in a campaign to squash a rival to its EpiPen allergy treatment and artificially inflate the price of the drug to maintain a market monopoly, French drugmaker Sanofi said in a lawsuit. From a report: With the lofty prices and near-monopoly over the market, Mylan could dangle deep discounts to drug suppliers -- with the condition that they turn their backs on Sanofi's Auvi-Q -- the lawsuit alleges. Suppliers wouldn't dare ditch EpiPens, the most popular auto-injector. And with the high prices, the rebates wouldn't put a dent in Mylan's hefty profits, Sanofi speculates. Coupled with a smear campaign and other underhanded practices, Mylan effectively pushed Sanofi out of the US epinephrine auto-injector market, Sanofi alleges. The lawsuit, filed Monday in a federal court in New Jersey, seeks damages under US Antitrust laws.

10 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Er...so it was about greed? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >> Mylan's Epic EpiPen Price Hike Wasn't About Greed -- It's Worse
    >> Mylan effectively pushed Sanofi out of the US epinephrine auto-injector market

    Competitor A pushes competitor B out of the market to corner the market and drive up profits, right? In other words, it's about greed, right?

    1. Re:Er...so it was about greed? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In other words, it's about greed, right?

      It is also about bad laws and poor regulation. They are able to use their near-monopoly position to push their customers into exclusivity agreements, reducing competition, strengthening their market dominance, and unfairly harming consumers. In most cases, exclusivity agreements should be illegal.

    2. Re:Er...so it was about greed? by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Exclusivity agreements of this kind should be considered illegal by default. They are bad for society, and we've seen this in so many ways.

      It's what Microsoft was doing to keep Linux down. It's what Intel did to keep their competitors down. I heard something (on NPR I think the other day) about how syringe manufacturers used it to keep an innovative syringe design off the market, because it was a third party syringe. The hospitals wouldn't buy it, despite the fact that it was better, because of exclusivity agreements.

      I'm sure there are plenty of other examples.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re:Er...so it was about greed? by Pseudonym · · Score: 3, Insightful

      To say that "there can be no free market in the absence of regulation" is equivalent to saying that there can be no free market, period.

      For a fundamentalist definition of "free", that's accurate. There can be no free market. There is only "more free" or "less free". And even then, you're often talking about various freedoms traded off against each other.

      The real world is a balancing act which requires constant, nimble adjustment. Neither Bloated Government nor The Mythical Hand of the Market can efficiently supply this by itself.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
  2. not holding my breath by avandesande · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bank fiasco 2008 nobody sent to jail Drug companies and medical companies numerous antitrust and illegal anti consumer practices, nobody in jail Banks knowingly laundering drug money nobody in jail

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  3. There needs to be a single price by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    To get some sanity in the drug marketplace there needs to be just a single price that the drug manufacturers charge. None of these crazy pricing schemes that really screw the uninsured or the underinsured that have to pay the top price.

    It's not just drugs, the entire medical industry has these crazy deals where the little guy who is the least able to pay ends up paying the most.

  4. Re:boo. by fred6666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The government is also free not to cover your product, and can negotiate a better deal with your competitor.
    All other developed countries have a public health care system and it works just fine, they end up spending less on health care than the US with its private system, and the population is generally in better health condition.

  5. Re:GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL! by Cinnamon+Beige · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, I suppose that saves Mylan on bribes to get that precious, precious regulatory capture that they've also been using to block competing tech from the US market.

  6. Re:Market by ghoul · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It just may not take care of it in a way you like. As far as the market is concerned all kids with allergies dying because of no epipen and hence the gene pool being cleansed of allergy genes is a valid outcome.
    So is the parents of such kids burning down Mylan and killing everyone on its board of directors (The market has no conscience)

    That is why we do not let unregulated markets play by themselves. Capitalism needs a tincture of socialism otherwise its just as bad as Communism just in different ways.

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
  7. Re:EpiPen in Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    £8.60 in UK - standard NHS prescription charge (although the British National Formulary lists the actual cost at £26 each). At least 2 other brands licensed in the UK, pretty much the same price.

    Bloody socialist medicine providing cheap EpiPens for for 1/20 of the US price. It's a disgrace.

    I am constantly amazed by Americans attitude to health care. You don't object to the govt building you roads why should you object to the govt providing you with a basic human right, decent health? I know why the govt thinks the way it does, thats easy, lobbying or as we say in here in England, bribery and corruption, but what puzzles me is why the Americans as citizens out up with this constant crap. Why is such a big deal for the govt to provide medicine?