White House, Clinton lash out at EpiPen price hikes

Gregory Korte and Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington Monday.

WASHINGTON — The White House weighed in on the controversy over the skyrocketing cost of the EpiPen allergy shot, saying unscrupulous pricing practices raise serious moral questions for pharmaceutical companies.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said companies that develop and market life-saving medication "often do real damage to their reputation by being greedy and jacking up prices in a way that victimizes vulnerable Americans."

While he said he wouldn't "specifically second-guess the pricing strategy or the business practices," of any one company, Earnest said the price hike "raises significant questions, even moral questions, in the minds of a lot of people."

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was more muted in her response to the EpiPen controversy Wednesday, calling Mylan's actions "outrageous — and it's just the latest troubling example of a company taking advantage of its consumers."

While the drug industry can be an "incredible source of American innovation," she said "it's wrong when drug companies put profits ahead of patients, raising prices without justifying the value behind them."

"We certainly have seen other high-profile incidents of pharmaceutical companies that have taken a hit both to their reputation and their stock price for engaging in unscrupulous practices. And I think other companies, including other pharmaceutical companies, would be wise to learn those lessons," Earnest said.

Mylan, the Dutch company that bought the EpiPen in 2007, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement Monday, Mylan blamed rising health insurance deductibles for the increase in out-of-pocket payments for patients and emphasized its co-payment coupons and donations of 700,000 EpiPens to schools since 2013. 

The prices insurers and employers negotiate with Mylan are up about 150% since 2009, according to Rx Savings Solutions, and 15% since May. The average wholesale price of the EpiPen has increased nearly 150% since 2009.

EpiPen's steady price increases masked until deductibles rose

President Obama himself contributed to the success of the EpiPen, an auto-injecting syringe used to deliver medicine to people in allergic shock. He signed a bill in 2013 using federal grants to encourage school districts to buy the pens.

Earnest said the president has no regrets about signing that law, "The fact is, the medicine that is delivered through this equipment saves lives," he said.

Earnest said he wasn't aware of any Obama administration investigation or enforcement action into the Epi-Pen pricing. The Food and Drug Administration is only authorized to review applications for new drugs for safety and effectiveness and doesn't have the authority to review or approve drug prices, said FDA spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman. 

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Mylan's steep price increases violated antitrust laws. 

The American Medical Association, which represents doctors, says it has been been pushing drugmakers to "to exercise reasonable restraint in drug pricing," but prefers "market-based strategies."

"With lives on the line, we urge the manufacturer to do all it can to rein in these exorbitant costs," the AMA said in a statement.