A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is raising questions about the increased price of Mylan Pharmaceuticals' EpiPens and calling for investigations into the inflated cost of the auto-injection drug that treats people with life-threatening allergic reactions.
Earlier this week, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sent letters to Heather Bresch, the CEO of Mylan, asking her to explain why the price of the epinephrine injections has increased by more than 400 percent since the Pennsylvania-based company bought the rights to the drug in 2007.
"I am concerned that the substantial price increase could limit access to a much-needed medication," Grassley wrote in his letter.
On the same day, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, urging the federal agency to investigate the rising price of the drug and to look into whether Mylan is using "exclusionary practices" to keep similar products out of the marketplace.
Klobuchar, who serves on the Senate's antitrust subcommittee, also called for the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing on the company's pricing practices.
"Many Americans, including my own daughter, rely on this life-saving product to treat severe allergic reactions," Klobuchar wrote. "Although the antitrust laws do not prohibit price gouging, regardless of how unseemly it may be, they do prohibit the use of unreasonable restraints of trade to facilitate or protect a price increase."
The controversy over the commonly used drug has close ties to West Virginia.
Mylan has a manufacturing facility in Morgantown, and the company is the fifth-largest employer in the state, according to Workforce West Virginia.
Additionally, Bresch, who has led the company since 2011, is the daughter of Joe Manchin, a Democrat and West Virginia's senior U.S. senator.
Mylan's pricing for the EpiPen isn't the only thing that has rapidly inflated. According to federal financial reports, Bresch's executive compensation has skyrocketed in the past nine years.
In 2007, Bresch, who was then president of Mylan, made $2.4 million. Last year, as the CEO, Bresch received a total of $18.9 million through her salary, stock awards and other compensation packages.
Manchin's office did not respond to questions about whether he supports an investigation into Mylan's pricing practices for EpiPen.
Mylan's communication staff did not respond to a request for comment.
A statement posted Monday on the company's website, said Mylan has "worked tirelessly" over the past several years to advocate for increased anaphylaxis awareness, access to treatment and preparedness for those with severe allergies and that to ensure access to epinephrine is a "core part of our mission.
"With the current changes in the healthcare insurance landscape, an increasing number of people and families have enrolled in high deductible health plans, and deductible amounts continue to rise," the statement read. "This current and ongoing shift has presented new challenges for consumers, and now they are bearing more of the cost. This new change to the industry is not an easy challenge to address, but we recognize the need and are committed to working with customers and payors to find solutions to meet the needs of the patients and families we serve."
According to Klobuchar's letter, the price for two EpiPen injections has risen from about $100 in 2008 to more than $500 this year.
West Virginia Reps. Alex Mooney and David McKinley did not respond to questions about Mylan by the time this report was published.
"Families in West Virginia and across the nation rely on EpiPens, and I am concerned about the rapid increase in price for this life-saving medication," Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., said in an emailed statement. "I believe Mylan needs to share with consumers the reasons for the price increase because this is impacting the availability of this medication for patients, families, schools and first responders."
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said she agrees with the other senators who are putting pressure on Mylan. She said they are "raising valid questions about the pricing of this life-saving drug, which Congress and the American people deserve to have answered."
This isn't the first time that members of Congress have alleged price-gouging by companies in the pharmaceutical industry. Earlier this year, members of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform berated the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli, for buying a 62-year-old drug that treated parasitic infections and increasing the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill.
During the hearing, Shkreli - who has been nicknamed "Pharma Bro" - refused to answer questions from members of Congress and spent most of the hearing grinning.
But the dramatic price increases for EpiPen and Daraprim, the Turing-owned drug, are a small part of what many see as the larger problem: the rising cost of pharmaceutical drugs overall.
Earlier this year, a study by IMS Health showed that U.S. spending on drugs had increased by 8.5 percent in 2015 over the previous year. Total spending on medicine, according to the study, had reached $310 billion and is forecast to reach $370 billion to $400 billion by 2020.
That means increased spending for everyone, even those who are healthy.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that spending on drugs had increased by 12.2 percent in 2014, more than twice the growth rate of federal medical spending overall that year.
Reach Andrew Brown at andrew.brown@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4814 or follow @Andy_Ed_Brown on Twitter.