Mylon drug company has faced a firestorm of criticism after its dramatic EpiPen price hike. The EpiPen is an emergency, potentially lifesaving treatment for severe allergic reactions. The price of two EpiPens is now $500, whereas it was only $100 just a few years ago.
Last year, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals Martin Shkreli increased the price of Daraprim from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill. Daraprim is used to treat a parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis, which often affects people with AIDS. Shkreli resigned and has been charged with securities fraud, but the price of the medication has not come down.
Martin Shkreli even took to Twitter to justify EpiPen’s price increase.
https://twitter.com/MartinShkreli/status/768471066931040256
He fails to mention that that the CEO of Mylan has gotten a 671 percent raise while the price of EpiPen has risen.
The EpiPen price hike is not a rare occurrence. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, pharmaceutical companies increased the prices of nearly 400 generic drugs by more than 1,000 percent between 2008 and 2015.
Hillary Clinton has taken notice of these price hikes. On the 24th of August, she tweeted that they were unjustifiable.
EpiPens can be the difference between life and death. There's no justification for these price hikes. https://t.co/O6RbVR6Qim -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 24, 2016
On Friday, Clinton released her proposed solution to dramatic price hikes like these. If elected, Clinton said she would create a government body to monitor drug price increases. The group would assess whether price increases are justified. It would examine the cost of producing the medication and how important the medication is to public health.
If this government body concluded that a price increase was unjustified, it could impose a fine on the drug company. The agency would also have the power to fund other pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to create similar drugs, in order to reduce prices.
Clinton’s plan would also allow Americans to import certain medications from other countries, where the prices are cheaper. She also supports allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.
Featured image is a YouTube screengrab.
