Mylan's Rising Drug Price

The current debate over the Mylan Company’s near monopoly of the epinephrine market through its EpiPen shows what can happen without monopoly regulation. While the cost to produce an Epipen is around $30, the price to the consumer is around $300 each. The economic implications for a family that needs to keep the device on hand to save a life can be excessively high, the emotional results of not having one when you need one are debilitating. This monopoly is further enhanced by state-enforced regulations requiring that schools keep EpiPens in stock and the, so-called, EpiPen law enacted in 2013, which leave little incentive for other pharmaceutical companies to develop their own technology for fast-acting emergency devices. (Bartolone, 2016) Breaking Mylan’s monopoly will not only lead to new product development but lower prices for consumers for a life-saving delivery

Recently, there had been a controversy over the rise in pharmaceutical costs involving the EpiPen in the United States. The EpiPen, also known as adrenaline/epinephrine, is a widely used injection that is used to treat allergic reactions. This generic drug has been available for many years. The EpiPen controversy is a prime example of how monopoly

After gaining heat in the news, Martin Shkreli announced that he would be lowering the price of his medication. Valeant, another drug company has also been under fire lately for the pricing of their medicine. Democrats in the House of Representatives have demanded that Valeant release their info about how they price their drugs. This demand could spread to other pharmaceutical cooperation's; forcing all companies to reveal their pricing strategies. (Ramsey) A few months ago, New York became one of 7 states with bills requiring pharmaceutical companies to reveal their prices. The other states are California, Oregon, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. However none of the bills have succeeded. If the bills were passed, all pharmaceutical cooperation's would be forced to submit quarterly reports on the changes to their pricing. (Owens). The war to fight against corrupt businesses has only just begun. Over time, the government and private pharmaceutical corporations will better cooperate and work together to have logical pricing in medicine based on funding and production

An issue that has both legal and ethical dimensions is the act of raising the price of the patented B-52 pill 8000%. The price gouging is illegal since it goes against the contract that CDU Inc. has with the Pharmaceutical Association of Canada, therefore a breach of contract exists. The ethical aspect comes in because Brenda knew that people who need B-52 have a lack of choice in alternatives, so they will pay the 8000% increase. The price increase ties in both issues as it is illegal to increase the price by 8000% because of the contract with the Association and also unethical because it is manipulative to raise prices knowing there are no effective substitutes.

According to Mark Baum, “The cost of epinephrine is literally less than a Big Mac of EpiPens ingredient. The auto injector is available between $3 and $7” (Egan). The history of the EpiPen provides background for reasonable prices and accessibility. CEO of Mylan Pharmaceutical Company raises prices too high for average consumer. Price hike is unethical because it endangers life of those who can’t afford it puts pharmacists profit above value of life. The Mylan Pharmaceutical Company is being unethical in its outrageous price increase of the EpiPen, making it almost impossible for the average consumer to purchase.

In recent years, the costs of all forms of medication have skyrocketed. If you or a loved one has been to the hospital recently, you know that the cost of the drugs is absurd. Many people believe that Big Pharma is to blame. Big Pharma is an industry term that refers to the large multinational drug companies that command a majority of the global pharmaceutical market. These companies have been accused of many scandalous actions including spending more money on new drug marketing rather than product development, as well as specifically targeting doctors who prescribe more drugs. Several controversial business techniques employed by Big Pharma are also to blame. Big Pharma has also had a large impact on the recent opioid crisis with numerous

The Pharmaceutical industry has been in the spotlight for decades due to the fact that they have a reputation for being unethical in its marketing strategies. In The Washington Post Shannon Brownlee (2008) states, “We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow.” This honorable statement is completely lost in today’s world of pharmaceutical marketing tactics. These tactics are often deceptive and biased. Big Pharma consistently forgets their moral purpose and focuses primarily on the almighty dollar. Big Pharma is working on restoring their reputation by reforming their ethical code of conduct.

For the 469 drugs on the market since the end of 2004, prices increased by 25.6% from 2005 to 2009, while the general growth rate was 13.3%. Consumers taking drugs to treat chronic diseases found that their average yearly cost increased from $2,160 to $3,168. Not many people know the transition of prices in the medical field. ”Last year pharmaceutical costs grew 13.6 percent – faster than any other part of the healthcare industry – and pharmaceutical company profits were nearly 20 percent in 2012, double the average profit margin for the S&P

There are various ethical principles which are violated by the company’s marketing tactics. Giving away free gifts to young doctors violates virtue and character. Such practices make these young doctors dishonest right from the beginning, before their career has even started and the oath taken to help everyone in need is broken when the doctors prescribe wrong drugs to their patients. Bribing government officials and the excessive lobbying also violates ethics, character, and virtue. Human rights are also violated through the marketing methods of big pharma. Right to information and right to health and safety are clearly ignored when the companies make false advertisements and push their drugs for off-label uses. Companies hide the truth about their research and continue to use their drugs by manipulating the consumers, doctors etc. When the companies overprice their drugs, they violate ethical principle of justice where equality is observed. As a result of overpricing the drugs, the government pays more for the Medicaid and Medicare programs thus reducing the budget for others in need. The marketing and advertising methods are clearly meant to increase the bottom-line and thus benefit only the shareholders. Other stakeholders are not given equal importance. According to the utilitarian principle, the benefits should exceed the costs; the benefits in the case of big pharma are an increased margin of profits and higher revenues. The costs include risk of public health,

Elisabeth Rosenthal, a non-practicing doctor and reporter for New York Times writes, “The Soaring Cost of a Simple Breath”(2013), which describes the effect the high-cost of pharmaceutical drugs has on a patient's ability to access that drug and the reasons for that high cost. To start, Rosenthal describes a real-life situation involving two girls who rely heavily on the Asthma medication Albuterol to be able to function normally. She uses the context of these individuals to describe the wide range of drugs that are priced too high, affecting a patient's ability to be treated. Rosenthal argues that this is a very simple thing to fix, but in America there are four core problems that primarily contribute to this epidemic. The first thing Elizabeth

The pharmacy business and healthcare in general is an immensely complex subject with profound ethical, economic and political intricacies and considerations. As discuss previously in this paper a lot of the issues with Shkreli arise from his own personality and a lack of moral turpi-tude. For the purpose of generating a reasonable solution we will put Shkreli’s personality aside and examine the specific strategy and conditions in the healthcare space that allowed Shkreli to single handedly raise the price of Daraprim by over 5000%. This section will examine the practice of trolling, a strategy used by Martin Shkreli and Turing pharmaceuticals to profit off the drug Daraprim despite adding nothing to the development or improvement of the drug.

My first topic of discussion is concerning the prices of prescription medicine. As we all know, the prices for medicine is increasing, and many people cannot afford to purchase them. For instance, a couple of weeks ago EpiPens, which treats emergency allergic reactions, has drastically climbed in price. They use to be $100 for two, but now they skyrocketed to $600. My issue with this is that Pharmaceutical industry experts estimated that they cost only $30 to make, so where is that extra expense coming from? It is unfortunate because many people, including children, rely on EpiPens. Even I rely on them because I once experienced anaphylactic shock when I was younger, so now I am supposed to always carry an EpiPen with me. However, the one that

This article discusses the generic drug maker Mylan and its long term earnings outlook going forward. Mylan is a generic drug manufacturer that sells roughly 600 drugs in the US market and just over 1,400 drugs around the world. Total revenues expected for 2016 is roughly $11 billion and the average expected earnings per share is $4.74 per share. $5.34 is next year's average expected earnings per share, according to Yahoo Finance. However, these earnings estimates do not include the likely penalties from the antitrust lawsuits or the impact from penalties resulting from underpayment of Medicare / Medicaid EpiPen rebates.

Lastly, yet another drug company who may not have increased the price of their drug overnight, but over a few short years have made it difficult for patients to afford their life-saving medication as well. Another company that has been pulled in front of Congress to answer for their extreme increase of a lifesaving drug and that company is Mylan. There are many ethical issues surrounding this case with CEO Heather Bresch, her salary increases went hand in hand with the increased price of the EpiPen, not to mention how she acquired the position she holds with the company. In an Article written by Edward Cox (2016), he puts some of the unethical issues surrounding Heather Bresch into perspective, he stated:

Since its creation, Mylan Pharmaceuticals has been in several legal battles and has faced a number of ethical quandaries. These litigations have taken the company from a corporation “free of problems” (Freudenheim, 1989) to a company who has been vilified for its extreme and insensitive price hikes on life-saving medications. While the negative press has created a public that is less than trusting, Mylan has maintained the company is still invested in providing high quality products for a low cost because they “care about the people who are helped by what they do” (Mylan, 2017).