Mylan On the Hot Seat

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3.
What is saying about the ethical situation?  How are they explaining their
actions, their lack of action, or their reaction?  What do you think about their approach to
the issue or problem? You might want to examine interviews, press releases and other
materials in answering these questions.

xplining their
actions, their lack of action, or their reaction?  What do you think about their approach to
the issue or problem? You might want to examine interviews, press releases and other
materials in answering these questions.
Mylan faced immediate and nasty backlash from the public after reports of their EpiPen price gouging surfaced. CEO Heather Bresch went before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee following the fruition of the scandal and provided some justification for not only the company's actions, but her individual actions as the CEO. 

Bresch expressed her frustration with the United States Healthcare system, continually referring to it as "broken". She repeated several times that the EpiPen that a patient purchases has already been interacted with by 4 or 5 entities. She used the graphic below to display how much of a cut Mylan gets from the $608 list price:

She argued that the list price was fair, and although the EpiPen accounted for $1.1 billion dollars of Mylan's $10 billion in revenue, that middlemen are in fact profiting more than Mylan itself. She also stated that Mylan invested around a billion dollars in order to raise awareness for patients experiencing severe allergic reactions and the EpiPen4Schools program, which led to the need to increase the price. She talks about it here in an interview with CBS;


When asked in numerous interviews the simple question, "Will you lower the price of EpiPen?" Bresch refused to answer definitively. Mylan did offer $300 coupons to some patients, and launched a generic injector that costs $300. Representative Elijah Cummings was unhappy with this solution and compared her rhetoric and perspective solutions to that of Turing and Valeant pharmaceuticals, who both came under fire for price gouging and came before the same committee. Mylan also planned on taking some other immediate actions such as doubling eligibility for the patient assistance program such that a family of four making up to $97,200 would pay nothing out of pocket for the product. They also said they would work on giving patients the ability to order directly from the company, cutting out the middlemen and reducing costs.

Bresch did not want to accept any blame for the issue on the behalf of Mylan. She refused to admit at any point that her company raised the price of EpiPen to make more money, and refused to give a solid yes or no when asked whether she had planned on raising the price again in 2017. This is what I think was the biggest mistake made by Bresch in terms of trying to contain the disaster. With all the numbers against her, she came out in the media saying there was a "lack of overall knowledge on the topic" and "there needs to be a holistic evaluation of the healthcare system." What she needed to do was come out waving the white flag, and begin with an apology for her actions and any ramifications it may have had on patients. From there she could've provided people with the facts, and tried to make her point that Mylan wasn't completely at fault. Instead she refused to accept that she was at fault for her actions, which made the backlash even worse. 












Comments

  1. UnknownApril 12, 2018 at 1:05 PM

    I completely agree with this statement “What she needed to do was come out waving the white flag, and begin with an apology for her actions and any ramifications it may have had on patients. From there she could've provided people with the facts, and tried to make her point that Mylan wasn't completely at fault.” The first step to any solving any type of problem is to admit that there is an issue. Heather Bresch seemed to stir the pot even more, rather than trying to calm their supporters providing them with facts and hope for the future movement in the company regarding this incident. I wonder if others who worked for Mylan supported Bresch with her responses to these questions or her entire reaction for the company on the issue.

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    1. UnknownApril 12, 2018 at 4:14 PM

      Through watching her interviews about the issue, it seemed that she came with the idea that she could talk her way out of blame. By talking about how Mylan has "served an undertreated population" and "spread awareness about allergic reactions" the only thing that is accomplished is further angering the group of people who have suffered financially because of their actions. They don't care about any of what Bresch has to say, they just want their money back and want to see her punished. To touch on her associates within Mylan, another thing I found interesting was the fact that she was the only person I ever saw representing the company after the scandal broke.

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  2. UnknownApril 12, 2018 at 11:28 PM

    It seems that there is less distribution of power within Mylan. Reading your reply to Amanda's comment, it is quite odd to see that Bresch is the only person who is speaking out on this issue. Her stubborn behavior just throws in more negative materials for the case against Mylan, as the already steep prices are causing a huge backlash. Even though the company is involved in other ethical activities, such as distribution of free EpiPens, I think it would be beneficial if they worked on their primary product of focus, which is more advantageous to the society. I also wonder, when will they implement the plan of cutting out the middle men in order to reduce costs, because that might be a strategy that can benefit more parties.

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    1. UnknownApril 13, 2018 at 8:42 AM

      I agree that the individual effort by Bresch to defend herself and the company was not a good move in the face of heavy criticism. Executives needed to come out in a united front and show their strength as a whole organization. I agree that if EpiPen is their largest product, they need to assign more personnel and attention to the improvement and control of the product. They did entertain the idea of allowing customers to buy a generic version directly from them for $300, but the logistics of that would be tricky and like I have mentioned I feel that the entire healthcare system needs to be evaluated.

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  3. Sandy WuApril 13, 2018 at 9:46 AM

    This is a very interesting read - I think people are more likely to forgive if they immediately apologize for their actions. Trying to evade the issue only creates anger and frustration between different populations, which just generates a community of negativity. It doesn't help the issue and it doesn't make anyone feel better.

    While there are other programs and coupons of support, I'm not sure if it was a smart choice to use that as an excuse for charging the EpiPens at such a high cost. It was mentioned in your post that middlemen were also profiting more than Mylan, so that also explains a hike in prices, but not necessarily a good reason for the entire problem.

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    1. UnknownApril 14, 2018 at 9:49 AM

      I agree completely. In any situation that you are in the wrong, if you try to talk your way out of it things always get worse. Their argument was that these programs and initiatives forced them to raise the price, however like I told Oksana, the $1 billion is research and development they claimed caused the increase was spent over an 8 year span, and in 2016 from EpiPen alone they profited $1 billion. So for them to say that they needed to continue to raise the price is ludicrous.

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  4. GrahamApril 13, 2018 at 8:08 PM

    I think this an example of unnecessary greed on the part of this pharmaceutical company. Especially considering that just a short time ago epipens were approximately $50 per pack. There is no way the cost of production has increased that significantly.

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    1. UnknownApril 14, 2018 at 10:01 AM

      Mylan has a history of strong production, in their early days they made their mark by producing at low costs, and producing faster then their competition. So I find it hard to believe that the cost of production changed at all, regardless of the minute changes that were made to the product. Drugs are drugs, they can only change so much and with the timeline showing their acquisition and immediately the price begins to increase tell me that they didn't have time to make serious changes.

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