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CVS takes on Mylan’s EpiPen with Much Cheaper Version of an alternative

apdst said:
Mylan holds a government enforced monopoly. Mylan's CEO is the daughter of a congressman.

The outrage is directed at the private sector, when it should be directed at the government. It's funny how the folks who are the most outraged are the same ones that want out of control government regulation.
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https://theintercept.com/2016/08/24/epipen-uproar-highlights-companys-family-ties-to-congress/

Welcome to the swamp that Trump intends to drain
Daddy is U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.,
She was hired after her father, then a West Virginia state senator, told then-CEO Mike Puskar that she needed a job.
She moved Mylan’s headquarters to the Netherlands last year after a corporate “inversion” merger with Abbott Laboratories.

Read the article. It's about nepotism, globalism, and the politically connected sticking it to average Joe.
 
I recall the issue with this was the the cheaper alternative was not an approved generic,
and so was not a choice for a person with a prescription.
I wonder if CVS's product will be considered a generic?
 
jmotivator said:
Really, I have no problem with a company making $600 profit either. But I love watching a company who thinks they are entitled to a $600 profit lose to a company that drastically undercuts them.

Competition is good.
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you watch mylan now lower their price to compete.
 
ludin said:
you watch mylan now lower their price to compete.
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We can hope. If they go out of business and CVS becomes top dog then expect a spike in the cost of CVS epipens.
 
jmotivator said:
We can hope. If they go out of business and CVS becomes top dog then expect a spike in the cost of CVS epipens.
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CVS is just selling the different pen which is manufactured by a different company entirely. That company has had difficulty in getting their pen sold in the marketplace.
 
Lord Tammerlain said:
CVS is just selling the different pen which is manufactured by a different company entirely. That company has had difficulty in getting their pen sold in the marketplace.
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Right. And if this stunt puts the competition out of business then expect them to seek to profit off of it... and then sometime later they will get their ass kicked by the next company ready to undercut them.

Vive le compétition!
 
Lord Tammerlain said:
CVS is just selling the different pen which is manufactured by a different company entirely. That company has had difficulty in getting their pen sold in the marketplace.
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Not like Mylan would go out of business. I suppose they could sell the Epipen patent though.
 
ludin said:
took 5 second of google searching. you are blaming the wrong system. blame the medical patent system not the company.
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If only you had taken 5 seconds to read my post, auto injectors have been around since the early 70's that I have first hand knowledge of. Atropine in our NBC gear.

Now 'the system' doesn't exist as a vacuum. Hard lobbying, revolving door between Big Pharma and the FDA agency, heavy hitter patent lawyers... geee yeah the corporation is blameless here, yet another 'victim' of da man... :roll:

Now take 10 seconds to google it and see the examples given on why some designs are turned down... ya think some nameless bureaucrat sits in a windowless room and makes these calls on his own???

Nice try though... :peace
 
notquiteright said:
If only you had taken 5 seconds to read my post, auto injectors have been around since the early 70's that I have first hand knowledge of. Atropine in our NBC gear.

Now 'the system' doesn't exist as a vacuum. Hard lobbying, revolving door between Big Pharma and the FDA agency, heavy hitter patent lawyers... geee yeah the corporation is blameless here, yet another 'victim' of da man... :roll:

Now take 10 seconds to google it and see the examples given on why some designs are turned down... ya think some nameless bureaucrat sits in a windowless room and makes these calls on his own???

Nice try though... :peace
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you want to continue to ignore facts that is on you.
way to ignore the link I provided you that showed you why you incorrect, but I
guess it is easier to do that than go yeah I was wrong.

It doesn't matter why other designs don't work. The fact is that epipen has a patent.
on the design of the pen and how it injects.

this is an issue with the patent office and medical patents in general.

I suggest reading the article which knows more than you do about it.
 
jmotivator said:
Right. And if this stunt puts the competition out of business then expect them to seek to profit off of it... and then sometime later they will get their ass kicked by the next company ready to undercut them.

Vive le compétition!
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Or they realize the mistake that epipen did and don't go that route and instead choose longer term income over short term gains.
 
ludin said:
Or they realize the mistake that epipen did and don't go that route and instead choose longer term income over short term gains.
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Now you are talking crazy
 
ludin said:
you want to continue to ignore facts that is on you. way to ignore the link I provided you that showed you why you incorrect, but I
guess it is easier to do that than go yeah I was wrong. It doesn't matter why other designs don't work. The fact is that epipen has a patent.
on the design of the pen and how it injects. this is an issue with the patent office and medical patents in general. I suggest reading the article which knows more than you do about it.
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I suggest you read more than one article... ;)

Fact is other designs have been blocked from production. The auto-injector I carried as a grunt does the EXACT same thing the epi-pen does- delivers content into a big muscle. That you wish to ignore how big pharma works using a revolving door, mega lobbyists and a rigged 'free market' is on you... :peace
 
Thoreau72 said:
Another example of FDA and pharmaceutical companies working hand-in-glove, scratching each others back, is the case of the ancient drug product Colchicine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchicine

Voila, with FDA manipulation, a pill that used to cost pennies now costs dollars.
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This was really a special case - pretty much unique. The FDA had some pretty clear rules around what drugs should be allowed on the market. Colchicine violated those rules, mostly because no one studied it that carefully in the past. The only way to remedy this under current law is to have the FDA allow a company to do a trial and grant patent exclusivity under Hatch-Waxman. Congress could have made an exception - but it was a GOP congress at the time and they believed in the 'free market'.

The company (which is really a generic company, not a 'big pharma' - which seems to be a point of confusion in this thread) went ahead with the trial and was able to get patent exclusivity. The real mistake here is that the FDA or the NIH should have done the trial instead and it would have been cheaper for everyone - but there was no political will to have this happen - the GOP has deemed the 'free market' to be best even in this highly regulated industry. So we had to go with price gouging for a few years.

But note that neither UCB - the mfg of colchicine, nor Mylan is really a "Big Pharrma" company - doing innovative research and bringing drugs with high risk/high reward to market. They are generic companies who are looking for regulatory loopholes for the bulk of their profits.
 
notquiteright said:
I suggest you read more than one article... ;)

Fact is other designs have been blocked from production. The auto-injector I carried as a grunt does the EXACT same thing the epi-pen does- delivers content into a big muscle. That you wish to ignore how big pharma works using a revolving door, mega lobbyists and a rigged 'free market' is on you... :peace
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The fact is that the delivery system for the epipen is patented. there is no getting around it. in order to come up with a new pen to the market
a new delivery system must be made.

the whole protected self injection mechanism is under patent.
read the article I posted. The drug itself isn't patented but the way that it is delivered is.

so if you want to make a deliver system that is just as effective you have to get creative so that you do not copy their design.
If you would have read my posts there is a huge issue in the medical field regarding medical patents etc ...

same goes with technological patents, however medical patents are way way more expensive.
it has nothing to do with what I believe or free markets but how the system currently works and the system is flawed.

the biggest design hurdle is making sure enough of the drug is injected that is why epipen was so popular.
 
trblmkr said:
In the end, almost a free market. But it could have turned out differently depending on court decisions. And because of the 400% hike, the reduction to a 100% hike just seems so reasonable. And those regulations to purchase and re-purchase every six months are all still in place. This was greed. nothing more, nothing less. A quick and heavy return and a steady lower return to stock holders that generates a huge bonus for the CEO. All paid for by consumers. Aren't we all thrilled to pay twice as much for something because, yea, free market!!
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Free market my arse. "Use it or die not using it" not really freedom of choice.
 
Threegoofs said:
This was really a special case - pretty much unique. The FDA had some pretty clear rules around what drugs should be allowed on the market. Colchicine violated those rules, mostly because no one studied it that carefully in the past. The only way to remedy this under current law is to have the FDA allow a company to do a trial and grant patent exclusivity under Hatch-Waxman. Congress could have made an exception - but it was a GOP congress at the time and they believed in the 'free market'.

The company (which is really a generic company, not a 'big pharma' - which seems to be a point of confusion in this thread) went ahead with the trial and was able to get patent exclusivity. The real mistake here is that the FDA or the NIH should have done the trial instead and it would have been cheaper for everyone - but there was no political will to have this happen - the GOP has deemed the 'free market' to be best even in this highly regulated industry. So we had to go with price gouging for a few years.

But note that neither UCB - the mfg of colchicine, nor Mylan is really a "Big Pharrma" company - doing innovative research and bringing drugs with high risk/high reward to market. They are generic companies who are looking for regulatory loopholes for the bulk of their profits.
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Good points all and thanks for the perspective. I had heard parts of that story before.

I wonder how long it will take for UCB and Mylan to become members of the club Big Pharma?
 
Thoreau72 said:
Good points all and thanks for the perspective. I had heard parts of that story before.

I wonder how long it will take for UCB and Mylan to become members of the club Big Pharma?
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Actually, I guess UCB is pharma (these days it's pretty small tho) but Mylan is mostly a generic house - there's not a lot of drug development or discovery happening there.
 
Threegoofs said:
Actually, I guess UCB is pharma (these days it's pretty small tho) but Mylan is mostly a generic house - there's not a lot of drug development or discovery happening there.
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You probably know more about that than I do. I just wonder how long it takes for a small company to be "in the club" as it were.

As a former user of colchicine back when it was cheap, it's really a ripoff to have to pay those outrageous prices for the new product when the cause of the price increase is purely bureaucratic. The stuff has been used for many hundreds of years.
 
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