The pharmaceutical company Mylan was able to raise the price of EpiPens so ridiculously high because the government has been continually protecting it from its competitors. Its CEO is the daughter of Senator Joe Manchin (D). Not surprisngly, the FDA has protected Mylan from competitors that would prevent this type of price gouging by making it more difficult for these would-be competitors to create a similar injection device for the otherwise inexpensive drug. Potential competitors have been working on this, but have been directly blocked by the FDA. One company has attempted to get around the need for the injector device by manufacturing pre-filled syringes, but the FDA has stalled approval. There is also a generic option, Adrenaclick, but the FDA has made it illegal for pharmacies to dispense it as a generic alternative to EpiPen. Government regulations at work.
In light of this, we put together a new venn diagram showing some of the more obvious connections between Mylan and the U.S. federal government.
