Executives of EpiPen maker Mylan will not testify before Congress about its settlement with the Justice Department over allegations it bilked Medicaid, angering a top GOP senator.
Mylan joined the Justice Department in declining to testify at a Nov. 30 Senate hearing on a settlement over Medicaid rebates for the allergy drug whose price was raised by Mylan to about $600 for a two-pack.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee called for the hearing, was angry at Mylan and Justice’s decisions to not testify.
“The Obama administration is dodging accountability for an expensive problem, and now a company is following its bad example,” he said. “Taxpayers have paid and, based on reports, continue to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more for the EpiPen than they have to pay.”
The settlement focused on the Medicaid rebate program, which requires drug makers to give Medicaid rebates for their products.
Brand-name drugs have to pay a higher rebate, about 26 percent of the average sales price, than a generic drug that must pay 13 percent.
For decades, Mylan classified the EpiPen as a generic drug, although it is a brand-name drug.
Mylan reached a $465 million settlement with the Justice Department to settle the allegations and denied any wrongdoing. Grassley has criticized the settlement and wanted to investigate it at the hearing.
Mylan officials said in a letter to the committee that the focus of the hearing appears to be oversight of government agencies.
Grassley blasted the decision.
“Ironically, the company was eager to talk about the problem a few weeks ago in a press release to investors but not before the United States Senate,” he said.
