Mylan listens to Hillary Clinton and cuts EpiPen price

Mylan said it would take immediate action to cut the cost of its EpiPen emergency allergy shot following pressure from politicians including US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who called previous price increases "outrageous" on Wednesday.

Mylan will expand already-existing programmess to help people with high out-of-pocket expenses, according to a statement on Thursday.

Chief executive Heather Bresch was quick to respond to the mounting political scrutiny, days after US politicians started to express outrage about rising prices of the allergy shot and called for investigations.

The criticisms, topped by US Democratic nominee Clinton’s statement on Wednesday, had sent the shares down 11 per cent in just three days.

The stock pared some of the losses Thursday in early trading, and was up 3.7 per cent to $44.76 early on Thursday.

Price transparency

“We have been a long-term, committed partner to the allergy community and are taking immediate action to help ensure that everyone who needs an EpiPen Auto-Injector gets one,” Ms Bresch said in the statement.

“Patients deserve increased price transparency and affordable care.”

Mylan had come under fire after increasing the price of EpiPen – a treatment used to treat life-threatening allergic reactions from bee stings, food allergies or other triggers – from about $57 (€50) a shot when it took over sales of the product in 2007 to more than $600 for two auto-injectors. It was the latest drugmaker to provoke congressional ire for steep price hikes.

Martin Shkreli and executives from the company he used to lead, Turing Pharmaceuticals, and executives from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International were called before congressional committees this year to explain why they bought the rights to older drugs that lacked competition and raised the prices.

–(Bloomberg)