How Does This EpiPen Story Keep Getting Worse?
Wait a minute. How does this work exactly?
Last week, the executives at Mylan appeared before a congressional committee where they had a tough time explaining how the price of an EpiPen got jacked up without using the word "gouging" in any form. Now, though, as The Wall Street Journal tells us, the company would like to, ahem, revise and extend their remarks.
Testifying before a congressional committee last week, CEO Heather Bresch said Mylan's profit was $100 for a two-pack of the injectors, despite a $608 list price. But in response to questions from The Wall Street Journal, Mylan said Monday that the profit figure presented by Ms. Bresch included taxes, which the company didn't clearly convey to Congress. The company substantially reduced its calculation of EpiPen profits by applying the statutory U.S. corporate tax rate of 37.5%-five times Mylan's overall tax rate last year. Without the tax-related reduction, Mylan's profits on the EpiPen two-pack were about 60% higher than the figure given to Congress, or $166, it said in a new regulatory filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday. The company said it expects to sell about 4 million EpiPen two-packs in the U.S. this year. Mylan said it now has provided the House Government Oversight Committee slightly changed and more detailed figures on its EpiPen profits, clarifying that the profit estimate was after taxes.
Again, I ask, how does this work exactly?
There is absolutely no way that the original testimony was an accident, or an oversight, or somebody's dog having eaten their ethics. There is absolutely no way that the original testimony was not at least an attempt to soft-pedal the information, if not an outright attempt to deceive the Congress and the public.
The business model for American corporations is fraud. It's hard to believe that Donald Trump has managed to succeed in this country.
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