Antitrust investigation into Mylan begins over EpiPen
pharmafile | January 31, 2017 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Mylan, pricing
The Federal Trade Commission has submitted a request to Mylan for information as part of a preliminary investigation into whether the company had violated antitrust laws. In particular, this relates to whether Mylan had intentionally blocked competitors from reaching the market.
The particular areas the FTC will investigate, according to Bloomberg, are whether Mylan made numerous changes to the EpiPen provided the branded product with an expansive patent shield to protect it from generic competitors. The other area that will be examined is whether Mylan entered into discussions with potential producers of cheaper versions of the EpiPen to delay further products coming to market.
The EpiPen is known to have sponsored a school program that provided schools with Mylan’s product. This meant striking deals with schools to take on its product for potential use in an anaphylactic reaction. In a separate antitrust investigation, New York Attorney general Eric Schneiderman is exploring whether Mylan entered anticompetitive terms into sales contracts made with school.
The investigation is still in the early stages but it is exactly the kind of PR that Mylan would have been hoping to consign to 2016. Last year, Mylan hit the headlines due to the extent to which Mylan was found to have increased the price of EpiPens after acquiring the treatment. It saw the price of two EpiPens rise from $100 to $600 per pack.
Mylan has denied breaking any such antitrust laws.
“Any suggestion that Mylan took any inappropriate or unlawful actions to prevent generic competition is without merit,” Mylan spokeswoman Nina Devlin is reported to have said. “We note that the epinephrine auto-injector market is and always has been competitive, with multiple products competing on the market since we acquired EpiPen Auto-Injector.”
Ben Hargreaves
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