I had a diary about her mom, Gayle Manchin, yesterday. The same woman who pretended to be concerned about school kids could not even get her daughter’s company to offer a long term discount in return for guaranteeing her daughter’s company a regular big customer. Hell, even an idiot who couldnt finish high school could secure a better bulk sales deal. Oh yeah, Mylan gave out a bunch of freebies early on. Sure, and Microsoft used to sell their products for practically free early on too. And once they got a near monopoly, we saw how they jacked up prices.
Here is some video of her testimony:
www.wsj.com/…
This goddamn hideous excuse of a human being goes in front of Congress and reiterates the same lame talking points she has been tossing out the last few weeks and expresses absolutely no regret.
The CEO of the drug maker that sells the EpiPen treatment defended the company's controversial price increases in Congressional testimony amid a political firestorm over pharmaceutical profits.
Mylan CEO Heather Bresch said in written testimony provided to the House Oversight committee that there's a "misconception about our profits" from EpiPen. The emergency allergic-reaction injection treatment now costs $608 for a two-pack, up from about $100 in 2009.
She omitted that message from her actual remarks to the committee but sent the same general message: that Mylan doesn't make as much from EpiPen as critics think it does.
She claims they make only $50 profit off each sale. Is it from the same accountants who told Art Buchwald that Coming to America did not make a profit? So when the drug was sold for a fraction of that price, were they making a big loss? Did they really turn over all of the price increase minus 50 bucks to the middle men??? If Mylan really did that, then Heather Bresch should be fired for incompetence for letting middle tiers gets an extra $400 or so in profit compared to their measly $50. And it is extra profit we are talking about because I see no news about Epipen being a money loser in the old days when it was priced in the two digits.
Why didn’t her mother have the schools best interests in mind and lobby her daughter’s company to give them a mass discount deal for a long term instead of some freebies early on to be accompanied by a massive price hike?
Elijah Cummings is onto her strategy and expressed his frustration. Just wait out the outrage and still cash in the money. Liberal groups and fellow Democratic senators are just putting up a show but there is no real pressure on Joe Manchin to even condemn Mylan, let alone his daughter (who by the way wasn’t even looking out for shareholder’s best interests during some corporate maneuvers a year ago).
Mylan raised EpiPen prices "to get filthy rich at the expense of our constituents," U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said.
Mylan joins the growing list of drug companies facing political scrutiny over sharp price increases, including Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Turing Pharmaceuticals, whose former CEO, Martin Shkreli, called the same committee "imbeciles" following his own appearance earlier this year.
Cumming said Mylan is taking the same approach as those companies: accepting the criticism but refusing to change.
"I’m concerned this is a rope-a-dope strategy. They will take their punches but then they go right ahead raising their prices," Cummings said.
She then comes up with some funny cost accounting.
In the complicated world of pharmaceutical pricing, there is something known as the 'Wholesale Acquisition Cost,' or WAC," she said. "The WAC for a 2-unit pack of EpiPen Auto-Injectors is $608. After rebates and various fees, Mylan actually receives $274. Then you must subtract our cost of goods which is $69. This leaves a balance of $205. After subtracting all EpiPen Auto-Injector related costs our profit is $100, or approximately $50 per pen."
Hey, So if costs were 174 per set, how the hell were they not going under when the price of the pens was less than 100 in the past?
A lot of people on DKOS weighed in on Shkrelli saying we need to go after him by any means necessary. Yet, that response is muted by some related to Heather Bersch and her family which has aided her in this hideous price increase. While no one here condones Heather, I find it amusing that limits are advised in how much we go after her and her family. Partisan politics trumping personal integrity. All it does is damage the Democratic party brand when we show such selective outrage with such scandals. As my past diaries showed, her political family has helped her along the way . They are part of this problem and if you look at comments in the local TV news sites, Democrats are being tarred with being greedy because of this bad seed.