Enlarge / Heather Bresch, chief executive officer of Mylan. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg)
Facing public and political wrath for steep price hikes on life-saving EpiPens, the devices’ manufacturer, Mylan, announced Monday that it will offer a cheap generic. But the generic isn’t that cheap.
Since Mylan bought EpiPens in 2007, the company has increased the price from around $50 for a single pen to a little more than $600 for a two pack—a more than 400 percent increase in costs. The new generic option, which the company said will be identical to EpiPens and available in a few weeks, is a two-pack with a list price of $300. That’s half of the current list price for a two pack, but still triple the 2007 cost of the devices.
EpiPens—auto-injectors that deliver a dose of epinephrine to reverse deadly allergic reactions, namely anaphylaxis shock—cost just a few dollars to make and have not changed considerably since Mylan acquired them. Since the price hikes, Mylan has raked in more than $1 billion in revenue each year. The company’s chief executive, Heather Bresch, saw her salary increase by more than 600 percent, topping $18 million last year. She’s one of the highest paid executives in the industry.
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Source: Ars Technica – EpiPen maker Mylan reveals generic—it’s only triple the price