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

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.

Comments

Er...so it was about greed?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> 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?

Re:Er...so it was about greed?

[ShanghaiBill]

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.

not holding my breath

[avandesande]

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

Re:not holding my breath

[PoopJuggler]

Steal a loaf of bread to feed starving kids, THE SLAMMER!

Damages

[Anonymous Coward]

If Sanofi proves its case, the judge should permanently revoke all patents in and related to EpiPen.

Let's see which drug manufacturer wants to be the next one to kill the golden goose after that ruling.

Re:GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL!

[CrankyFool]

FWIW, and I speak as a Democrat here, Heather Bresch, CEO of Mylan, is the daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin, Democratic Senator from West Virginia.

Not the whole story.

[Major Blud]

I had actually just finished reading this on Ars before coming here to see it at the top of the page. The summary leaves out a very important detail.

Sanofi is suing Mylan claiming that their underhanded attempts cost them business. While that may be true, I think that this may have a more severe impact on their sales:

"In 2015, Sanofi pulled Auvi-Q following quality control issues. The device has since been put back on the market by another pharmaceutical company, Kaléo. The list price of the newly released Auvi-Q is set at $4,500."