Mylan has disclosed that it is under preliminary investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for possible violations of antitrust laws related to the sale of the EpiPen; The price for a two-pack of EpiPens skyrocketed from $100 in 2007 to $600 last fall
The investigation follows Klobuchar’s call in August to the FTC to investigate whether Mylan had engaged in anticompetitive activities; Last year, Klobuchar was among the first senators to respond to Mylan’s excessive price increases
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) issued the following statement on the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) preliminary antitrust investigation of Mylan Pharmaceuticals. Mylan has disclosed that it is under preliminary investigation for possible violations of antitrust laws related to the sale of the EpiPen. The price for a two-pack of EpiPens skyrocketed from $100 in 2007 to $600 last fall. The investigation follows Klobuchar’s call in August to the FTC to investigate whether Mylan had engaged in anticompetitive activities. Last year, Klobuchar was among the first senators to respond to Mylan’s excessive price increases.
“I’m glad that the Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation into whether Mylan Pharmaceuticals has violated antitrust laws,” Klobuchar said. “As I said in August, when a company imposes enormous costs on American consumers on such an important product, the FTC must ensure that no illegal actions have occurred. I’ll continue to fight for permanent solutions that protect American consumers from the rising cost of prescription drugs.”
Klobuchar has been a national leader in the effort to bring down the costs of prescription drugs. On EpiPen, she raised concerns and called for investigations that resulted in Mylan agreeing to pay $465 million to resolve claims that it had misclassified EpiPen to lower the rebates it owed the government. In August 2016, Klobuchar wrote to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to call on the agency to provide information on the effect of Mylan’s price increases on government prescription drug costs, asking specifically why EpiPen was classified as a generic drug under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. Following these efforts, CMS found that Mylan had misclassified the EpiPen as a “non-innovator multiple source drug,” or generic drug, resulting in overpayment for the drug by states and the federal government through the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. Klobuchar has also urged the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a nationwide investigation to see how many other drugs are also misclassified. Klobuchar then called on the Department of Justice to consider investigating whether Mylan Pharmaceuticals violated the law by misclassifying EpiPen product in order to pay a lower rebate to states and reap huge profits at the expense of taxpayers.
In November, Klobuchar called on Mylan to reimburse the Department of Defense (DoD) for past overpayments for the EpiPen Auto-Injector. Mylan’s misclassification of the EpiPen as a “non-innovator multiple source drug” led the DoD to pay exorbitant rates for the drug at retail pharmacies. She has also called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to answer questions about its approval process and other steps for alternatives to the EpiPen.
###
