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Soaring drug prices are again drawing the ire of the American public. The problem and any potential solution lies more in the U.S. health-care system rather than in the greed of any particular drug company or executive. (Charley Grant, 8/25)

Mylan, the profiteering, tax-dodging drug company currently taking immense heat for jacking up the price of its Epipen by 500%, announced Thursday that it will help more patients cover their soaring out-of-pocket costs for the allergy drug device. That’s good for some individual patients and families. But at heart it’s a cynical move that actually protects the company’s profits and harms the healthcare system. As I explained last year, that's because such moves are often marketing schemes dressed up to look like altruism. (Michael Hiltzik, 8/25)

Pharmaceutical heavyweight Mylan, the latest poster child for drug-industry greed, finally stuck up for itself Thursday. It argued that “the system,” not avarice, was to blame for the company jacking up the price of EpiPens, a common (and life-saving) allergy remedy, by over 400%. “Look, no one’s more frustrated than me,” Mylan Chief Executive Heather Bresch declared on CNBC. Actually, millions of people — those with chronic medical conditions or other illnesses — are more frustrated than her. (David Lazarus, 8/26)

In the latest in a recent series of controversies over prescription drug prices, Mylan Pharmaceuticals has come under well-deserved fire for jacking up the price of a package of EpiPens — devices that deliver an emergency shot of epinephrine to someone suffering a potentially fatal allergic reaction — 550% since acquiring the right to sell the devices in 2007, from $94 to $608. That may seem modest in comparison to the more than 5,000% increase that Turing Pharmaceuticals quickly imposed on Daraprim, an anti-malarial drug also used by HIV patients, or the more than 3,000% increase that Valeant has extracted for Syprine, a blood-cleaning agent. But given the life-saving nature of EpiPens, their widespread use and Mylan’s effective monopoly, the company’s profiteering is outrageous. (8/26)

But in 2007, Mylan pharmaceutical company won a near-monopoly on the device. The company used its new power to raise the price of EpiPens by more than 400 percent in recent years. Because it could. Now many families will have to make huge sacrifices to scrounge up more than $500 every year. (They expire.) And some children will have to go back to school without this medication because their families can’t afford it. That is unconscionable. (Chirlane McCray, 8/25)

On Thursday, Mylan said it would boost programs that help patients pay for the EpiPen but would not reduce the price. Stay tuned for Capitol Hill hearings and investigations. Mylan, welcome to Shkreli-Land. Among the defenders of Mylan's pricing is ... you guessed it: Martin Shkreli. We don't begrudge Mylan its profits. And no, we can't say if the price of the EpiPens is too high. That's for the market to decide. What we do know is that when Shkreli spiked the price of his company's drug, Daraprim, competitors emerged to offer similar drugs at lower prices. The same could happen here. That's the way the market works. (8/25)

EpiPens offer a lifeline for those of us with life-threatening allergies, making the debate on their soaring price all the more pivotal. EpiPen is the brand name for Mylan’s epinephrine auto-injector, a shot that delivers the exact amount of adrenaline my body needs after an allergy attack. That medicine, stored in what looks like an oversized yellow pen, opens my throat up and gives me time to get to a hospital for further treatment. (Ben Kamisar, 8/25)