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If you're going to overcharge the U.S. government, you don't want to get caught:
Mylan NV for years overcharged the U.S. Medicaid health program to buy its EpiPen shot, the government said Wednesday, despite being told that it needed to give bigger discounts under the law. From 2011 to 2015, the joint state-federal program for the poor spent about $797 million on EpiPens, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, said in a letter Wednesday. That included rebates of about 13 percent, but the U.S. should have been getting a larger discount of at least 23.1 percent.
While the agency didn't say exactly how much Mylan had overcharged, the amount could be substantial. Under law, companies are required to give [Medicaid] back any price increases they take on brand drugs above the rate of inflation, in addition to the 23.1 percent discount. Mylan, after acquiring the drug in 2007, has raised the price of EpiPen by about sixfold, to over $600 for a package of two. The government has in the past "expressly told Mylan that the product is incorrectly classified," CMS said in the letter, which came in response to an inquiry by Congress. "This incorrect classification has financial consequences for the amount that federal and state governments spend because it reduces the amount of quarterly rebates Mylan owes for EpiPen."
Previously:
EpiPen's Price Increased 400% since 2008
AllergyStop: $50 EpiPen is Production-Ready but...
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2016, @01:02PM
If, as you say, it comes down to legal arguments about sole vs multi sources, I think that would be a shame.
Seems to me that a 6x price hike of a mature product, over 9 years, combined with exorbitant executive pay (at expense of stock holders) should be the topics of interest? Or in simple words, follow the money.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday October 06 2016, @04:26PM
As long as you follow the exact letter of the law, it's not illegal to be a greedy heartless asshole.
But if you attract too much attention by being a greedy heartless asshole, you'd better make sure that you did indeed follow every rule to the letter.
Or have a Senator for a dad. Or provided the right amount of campaign contributions.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nerdfest on Thursday October 06 2016, @06:47PM
The punishment for this kind of douche-baggery should be immediate transfer of the patent to the public domain.