Inspired by the Mylan kerfuffle

Dear Congress: Have You Received Money From These Pharma Companies
by Tyler Durden
Aug 25, 2016 2:41 PM

We have been following the latest melodrama involving a "greedy" Mylan, and numerous "humanistic" US politicians, all the way up to the Democratic presidential candidate, exchange blows over the company's dramatic price increases of its EpiPen anti-allergy medication, with a healthy dose of amusement for one simple reason: if Congress wants to crack down on someone, it should crack down on itself.

After all, the only reason Mylan has been able to pass the kinds of price increases that Congress is now blasting it for, is because of US laws and regulations; laws which incidentally, have been determined in Washington's backroom bribe parlor, i.e. the corner offices of thousands of local lobby organizations dispensing with billions of dollars in "client" funds.

Clients such as the companies listed below.

Which brings us to this question: dear Congress, have you received millions in lobby dollars from the US pharmaceutical industry.

Or perhaps Congress denies that virtually every single pharmaceutical company operating in the US has spent millions on influence peddling pardon lobbying, in recent years? Perhaps, just like in the case of the Clinton foundation defense, that money was not used to buy favors and influence legislation, but was purely for humanitarian reasons?

So how much money has the US pharma industry spent? According to OpenSecrets, so far in 2016, the amount is $129 million, rising to $2.3 billion over the past decade.



Here is a small selection of the 369 lobbying "clients" OpenSecrets keeps track of: one can see Mylan toward the bottom.



And, as usual, we conclude with our favorite chart showing the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and Congress, according to which every dollar spent by big Pharma on lobbying generates a return of 77,500%!



And since virtually all representatives and senators suddenly appear so eager to accuse Mylan and its CEO of greed, we look forward to each and every member of Congress explaining to the American public, and their constituency, precisely where all their lobby dollars have came from, what laws were enacted as a result, and most importantly, what they spent the money on.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-25...pharma-industry

More specific information on Mylan and epi-pen


Lock Them ALL Up
2016-08-23 17:08 by Karl Denninger

How many times will you hear crap coming out of your Tee Vee and various reps and senators before you drop everything you're doing, get off your ass, show up in DC and refuse to leave until everyone involved in this garbage goes to prison?

Zitat

---

The EpiPen isn’t new; it has been in use since 1977. Research and development costs were recouped long ago. Nine years ago, it was bought by the pharmaceutical company Mylan, which then began to sell the device. When Mylan bought it, EpiPens cost about $57 each.

Few competitors existed, and for various reasons, that has remained the case. The device actually worked and saved lives. People needed it. Mylan raised the price. It also began to raise awareness.

---

"Raise the price" is sure a decent description... if you consider a 500% increase a "raise"...

Why?

No competition.

Or is there?

Yes, there is. You can buy these over the counter virtually anywhere in Europe for about $20 each. You can buy insulin over the counter in France for about the same price for a month's worth of supply.

And yet if you bring just one of either back over said border with you then you are breaking the law. Bring a whole suitcase back and you're going to prison.

Yet if you did exactly that, were not put in prison and sold them, how many $600 (for a pack of two) pens would be sold in America? Zero, because even if you charged $50 each (a $30, or 150% profit) you could make a hell of a business out of flying back and forth between any EU country and the United States doing exactly this.

How long would Mylan sell them for $300 each ($600 for a 2-pack) if you started doing this? 15 seconds, which is how long it would take them to figure out that they'd sell zero of them if they didn't drop the price back to about $50.

..................................................

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=231480

All part of the street theater that would have us believe that the -R's and -D's are opposition parties when in reality they are two wings of the same progressive party with different window dressing.