Mylan NV @mylan (MYL) said it would reduce the patient cost of its severe allergy treatment drug EpiPen on Thursday, a day after Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called for lower pricing of the drug.
The company said it is reducing the patient cost of EpiPen through the use of a savings card, which will cover up to $300 for their EpiPen 2-Pak.
For patients previously paying the full amount of the company’s list price, this effectively reduces their out-of-pocket cost exposure by half, Mylan said.
Clinton had called on Mylan to voluntarily drop the price of EpiPen, whose price has increased by more than 400% since it bought the rights to the drug in a 2007 acquisition. It currently generates over $1 billion a year in revenue for the company.
Mylan has had a near-monopoly in the space in the U.S. Since Sanofi SA (SNYNF) withdrew a competing product last year. The FDA has also refused to register a generic alternative from Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA).
Clinton called the pricing strategy “outrageous.”
“[I]t’s just the latest troubling example of a company taking advantage of its consumers,” she said in a statement. “It’s wrong when drug companies put profits ahead of patients, raising prices without justifying the value behind them.”
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar had already called on Monday for an official investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) into the price hikes.
Mylan CEO Heather Bresch had argued on a recent conference call that the price rises were caused in part by the unintended consequences of the Affordable Care Act, which had encouraged employers to embrace high-deductible health plans. She had told investors until recently that there was scope to raise the drug’s price still further.
