A trio of bipartisan senators want drug maker Mylan to pay back the Department of Defense for overcharging for the allergy drug EpiPen.
The senators said Mylan misclassified the EpiPen that “led the DoD to pay exorbitant rates for the drug at retail pharmacies,” according to a letter sent to Mylan CEO Heather Bresch on Monday. The company has seen outrage from Congress for price hikes for the life-saving drug, which now costs $600 for a two-pack.
Mylan already agreed to pay the Department of Justice about $465 million to settle claims that it misclassified a drug and paid a lower rebate to Medicaid.
Now the lawmakers want answers about whether Mylan is doing something similar with the Pentagon.
The dispute centers on the department’s retail refund program. The Department of Veterans Affairs determines which drugs require manufacturers to provide a refund for “purchases made by certain federal agencies including purchases made through DoD’s retail pharmacy network,” the letter said.
The senators add that Mylan misclassified the EpiPen as a generic drug while it is actually a brand name product.
Since it was determined as a generic, EpiPens weren’t eligible for the Department of Defense retail refund program, the letter added.
“As a result, DoD appears to have paid in excess of $50 million for the product over nearly a decade,” according to the senators.
The company did not immediately return a request for comment.
Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., wrote the letter to Mylan.
Grassley will hold a Nov. 30 hearing on the Department of Justice’s $465 million settlement for Medicaid.
Blumenthal previously demanded that the Department of Justice reject the Medicaid settlement. He said in a letter to the agency that Mylan did at least $700 million worth of harm to taxpayers by overpricing EpiPen.
