After several hours of intense questioning, the congressional hearing on the rising price of EpiPens has finished.
Jason Chaffetz, the House Oversight Committee chairman, concluded the hearing by again questioning whether Mylan is gouging prices for an outrageous profit gain. CEO Heather Bresch repeated her claim that the company receives just $50 of profit on EpiPens, losing much of that to research and development costs.
Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah, seemed to be at his wit’s end, saying:
Don’t come here and tell us you’re doing the world a favor by increasing the price from $125 to over $600, and everyone else is making money except poor old Mylan. It just doesn’t smell right. It doesn’t pass the basic sniff test.
Chaffetz also challenged the FDA on how long it takes to approve a generic drug, concerned with the amount of time it will take before people have another option. Douglas Throckmorton, representing the FDA, did not know the exact time and said he would report back to Congress in 10 days.
Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, had the last word of the hearing, telling Bresch:
In the end, our constituents still suffer. When you fly back on your jet, you’ll think about that mother I told you about trying to just take care of their families.