Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Senators Want EpiPen-Maker To Reimburse Defense Department $50M
A group of senators wants to know if Mylan Pharmaceuticals will refund $50 million for charging the Department of Defense 鈥渆xorbitant rates鈥 at retail pharmacies for the EpiPen emergency allergy device. Their demand followed a Reuters report last week that Pentagon spending on EpiPen rose to $57 million over the past year from $9 million in 2008. The increased spending was due to price hikes and increased sales volume, but also due to lower rebates Mylan paid the Defense Department. And Mylan paid lower rebates because the company misclassified the device as a generic instead of a brand-name product. (Silverman, 11/7)
Three members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, ahead of a planned hearing late this month, said Mylan NV appears to have greatly overcharged the military for its lifesaving allergy treatment EpiPen and asked the pharmaceutical company when it plans to reimburse the Department of Defense. (Pierson, 11/7)
A trio of Senators called on Mylan Pharmaceuticals Monday to reimburse the Department of Defense for overcharging the department for EpiPens for years. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) say they are 鈥渁larmed that Mylan may have overcharged our military for this life-saving drug.鈥 (McIntire, 11/7)
Lawmakers continued criticizing Mylan NV over its EpiPen injector, with two leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee calling for the Federal Trade Commission to review whether Mylan engaged in anticompetitive practices. Committee chairman Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) said in a letter to the FTC that the agency should look into issues including school contracts that restricted purchases of EpiPen competitors. (Beckerman, 11/7)
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee urged federal antitrust regulators on Monday to launch a probe into whether EpiPen maker Mylan NV broke the law by preventing schools from purchasing competing allergy treatments. The bipartisan request to the Federal Trade Commission by Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley and Ranking Member Patrick Leahy comes just a few weeks before the committee is slated to convene a hearing to scrutinize a pending $465 million settlement that Mylan has said will resolve claims it underpaid rebates to state and federal Medicaid programs. (Lynch, 11/7)
