Elite to Subsidize Corrupt Epi-Pen Business in Illinois

The scandalous Epi-Pens saga continues. They can be made very cheaply but the price has jumped from $57 to $500 since 2007, not because they are worth it, but because of greed and corrupt business practices. Now Illinois won’t fix the problem but instead will make insurance companies who shift costs to taxpayers to fund the overly-priced pens for children.

Because no child should go without or something.

Yeah, you’re an idiot.

I was proud to sign two new laws expanding insurance coverage for children whose allergies require live-saving EpiPens and Illinoisans suffering from Lyme disease.

This legislation takes a big step forward in protecting our children and families. pic.twitter.com/ZQVTies3j3

— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) August 13, 2019

An epinephrine injector, used during an anaphylactic attack, delivers a dose of epinephrine, or adrenaline that minimizes swelling and opens airways.

Illinois State Senator Julie Morrison said no child should suffer because they can’t afford an EpiPen. The cost of the EpiPen jumped from $57 in 2007 to about $500 in 2016, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

WHY DEAL WITH CORRUPTION? JUST LIE TO THE PEOPLE

For those who don’t remember, Senator Manchin’s daughter wiped out the competition in the Epi-Pen business.

Without competition, Mylan has been able to continuously raise their prices on the life-saving medication and injector — there are no companies to offer it for less. Gizmodo reported in September 2016 that the consumer complaints about Mylan’s price gouging over EpiPens has been going on for years — but the complaints were unanswered. Also, between their cozy relationship with the FDA and their questionable practices, Mylan was able to take a drug worth fifty cents and sell it for more than $600.

That’s big government for you. Wait until they own you.

Apparently, anyone can lodge a complaint with the FDA and the FDA can choose to make a case out of it which is what happened with Mylan’s potential competitors.

Citizen petitions can keep a drug or device from FDA approval. When Teva tried to sell a generic EpiPen in 2015, Mylan employees filed a citizen’s petition complaining about Teva safety to keep them from the market. Mylan apparently relied on this practice.

Epinephrine costs about fifty cents an injection but Mylan has their own FDA-approved injector and any time a competitor comes along with another injector, Mylan’s friends in the FDA would have concerns and keep it from the market.

The Intercept reported on the companies CEO who has given herself and her executives’ exorbitant pay increases:

From working in the company’s basement, CEO Helen Bresch (Senator Manchin’s daughter) moved through the ranks to become Mylan’s chief lobbyist in 2002. In that position, she contributed to the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill, which barred the federal insurance provider from bargaining with drug companies over prices. She was also key to the passage of the 2012 Generic Drug User Fee Act, which increased inspections of foreign facilities manufacturing drugs for the U.S. market. While it increased regulations at Mylan’s own sites outside the U.S., it also made it more difficult for foreign drugmakers to sell their products domestically.

Mylan also spent $1.2 million on lobbying Congress to great advantage.

After their lobbying efforts, the government passed a law giving block grants to states requiring schools to stock EpiPens. Packages of EpiPens were required to be sold with two EpiPens.

Mylan misclassified EpiPen as a generic drug, in order to avoid the higher rebates drug companies must pay when they sell their brand-name products to state Medicaid programs.

Congress has been worthless but a French drugmaker is suing Mylan for stifling the competition. Other than that, nothing is dealing with corruption in the case.

Top executives at Mylan, the pharmaceutical company that owns EpiPen, reportedly reaped in nearly $300 million in compensation from 2011 to 2015.

Our elite are lazy, corrupt dumbasses.

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