Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., remembers when former pharma CEO Martin Shkreli came to Congress in February to answer for raising the price of an antimalarial drug by 5,000 percent.
Shkreli didn’t answer any questions after invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination because of federal securities fraud charges.
Now after an exhaustive hearing, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee believes that Mylan CEO Heather Bresch has been just as frustrating.
“Frankly, you might as well take the fifth too, with the kind of information that we got here today,” Cummings said late Wednesday at the conclusion of a House Oversight Committee hearing on Mylan’s price hike for the EpiPen.
Lawmakers were angry that Bresch wasn’t able to answer simple questions about the profits and costs devoted to research and development for the EpiPen, which Mylan raised the price of by 400 percent since acquiring it in 2007.
“Your numbers are so askew. It really is troublesome,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, the committee chairman. “It just feels like you are not being candid and honest with Congress for some basic information.”
Chaffetz tried to get Bresch to drill down into the profits the company makes from the EpiPen. The company sells a two-pack of the product for $608 but Bresch said it only receives $274 after taking into account wholesaler costs.
After taking out $69 to produce the auto-injector that delivers a life-saving dose of epinephrine, that leaves a balance of $205.
However, Mylan noted that its profit is $100, or about $50 per pen since it is sold as a two-pack.
Cummings wanted to know about the profit increases that have taken place since Mylan bought the drug in 2007.
“It is extremely difficult to believe you are only making $50 in profit when you just increased the price by more than $100 per pen,” Cummings told Bresch.
Chaffetz asked Bresch whether any of the $50 profit from each pen goes to fund the $300 million in salaries from five executives. Bresch disclosed that she receives about $18 million in salary.
She responded that the $50 profit doesn’t go toward the salaries and she will provide more information on where the money goes.
“I know we have been responsive,” she said. “I know we produced a couple thousand documents and I know there is more that we will have to produce.”
Chaffetz gave Mylan a 10-day deadline to produce more documents on the profits and other related costs.
When asked after the hearing what will happen if Mylan doesn’t produce the necessary documents, Chaffetz said that “we will cross that bridge when we come to it.”
