SAN FRANCISCO — Mylan’s CEO gave a measured response to President-elect Trump’s promise Wednesday morning to crack down on high drug prices.
Heather Bresch, who spent the last half of 2016 under fire for raising the price of the company’s EpiPen allergy shot 400 percent, said she would have to see the entire picture of what Trump is suggesting before pronouncing judgment.
“It’s not black or white, it’s what would the proposal look like,” Bresch said in a session at the JPMorgan Healthcare Investor Conference.
Congressional Republicans are considering enacting tax reform later this year, which could benefit pharmaceutical companies. But drugmakers are also wary about promises from Trump to regulate drug prices, including his suggestion to allow the federal government to negotiate lower Medicare Part D prices.
Bresch didn’t directly denounce those ideas. But she stressed that drug prices need to be brought lower through a “market-based solution.” And she said the answer is not as simple as ensuring annual price increases are below 10 percent, as some executives have suggested.
“A lot of companies were saying the answer to transparency was having price increases below 10 percent,” Bresch said. “I don’t believe that’s the answer or the right solution.”
