Pharmaceutical companies spike EpiPen prices 600 percent while allegedly deceiving Hoosier consumers

Attorney General Todd Rokita sues pharmaceutical companies over anticompetitive acts related to EpiPen 

Submitted by Office of the Attorney General

Rokita

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has filed a lawsuit alleging that Mylan and Pfizer have conspired to increase EpiPen’s price by more than 600 percent in order to continue to profit from EpiPen prescriptions and prevent other similar products from coming to market and being available to consumers.

EpiPens are potentially life-saving devices used to inject adrenaline into patients to combat severe allergic reactions.

“Pharmaceutical companies have prioritized profits over patients,” AG Rokita said. “Many Indiana residents rely on these medications to stay alive. Hoosiers deserve to know that the prices they pay for epinephrine arise from free and fair competition.”

The complaint alleges the companies and their subsidiaries have violated the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, the Indiana Antitrust Act, and the Medicaid False Claims Act by continually increasing the price of EpiPens and providing payments to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to exclude competition.

“Hoosier families are suffering enough already from the economic decline experienced during the Biden administration,” AG Rokita said. “For these companies to add to the pain by scheming against people with medical conditions is absolutely unethical.”

The lawsuit also asserts the companies have paid doctors to endorse their decision to launch a two-pack of the EpiPen and claim it is medically necessary – allowing the companies to cease selling individual EpiPens.

This is just one of the many times AG Rokita’s office has taken on dishonest companies that harm Hoosier patients. Since Rokita took office, he has obtained a $66.5 million settlement against Centene for their failure to disclose true costs, won a $573 million multistate settlement against McKinsey & Co. for its role in “turbocharging” the opioid epidemic with Purdue Pharma, and secured $49.1 million in settlements against Heritage Pharmaceuticals and Apotex for price fixing related to generic drugs.