Real Bad Timing, Pete
Okay, so I don’t have to tell you that the most pathetic thing that has happened since Martin Shkreli thought it would be fun to raise drug prices and watch people die just for the hell of it, has to be the Epi-Pen disaster.
Mylan Inc. who decided that watching people swell up and die from bee stings would be a mess of fun, decided that buying politicians would be a good way to hedge their bets on public outcry.
So, they went to my congressidiot, Pete Olson, and showed him some love. This isn’t the first time they donated to him, but it was a nice little reminder before they jacked up the price. Note the date, July 12th.
Way to go, Pete. Can’t wait until your next town hall.
Thanks Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen for the heads up.
Not only do they sell you out, they sell out CHEAP! He might as well be wearing fishnet hose and leaning against a lamppost.
1Special place in hell, Pete. Those few pieces of silver will hang heavy on your mind, since you don’t appear to have a conscience. You and the gang at Mylan will be roasting together.
2Only one grand, Boy you bend over cheap.
3Hay there maryelle— a cup of gas and a match would start the roast early. Why wait for him to get to hell?
Cheryl!! Good on you! Exactly. A grand. A lousy grand!! Mama always said, if you’re gonna act like a cheap whore you should dress like one.
4This should be posted at all the pharmacies and doctors’ offices and when the patient complains about how much the epi-pen (or insurance premiums) costs, the pharmacist can point to it and tell them this is the reason why. Also, the news article about how the CEO and senior execs of Mylan gave themselves a 600% raise.
5What glf said.
6Huh.
7If there were a righteous god to do some smiting (and I’ve seen very little evidence of such a god having good aim), a few life-threatening allergies with no Epi-Pen in sight would be a nice present for a few people, using the term “people” loosely.
8Town hall, Ha!
9I’ll never forget his face when I saw him walk into a town hall full of angry teabaggers. Wouldn’t expect a man who has strapped on an F-16 to fly a thousand miles per hour to have such a deer-in-the-headlights look.
The blog Stonekettle Station has a good post on this: The Latter Days of a Better Nation, Part IV
10Republican politicians can take all the money they want from Mylan with virtually no repercussions. Clearly, their voters will continue to cast ballots for the likes of Pete Olson, Louie, Perry, etc because they’re not allergic to nuts, or nut cases, and therefore don’t care how much an epi-pen costs.
11Pete is ecstatic, but hasn’t a clue how the mysterious envelope filled with very large bills ended up on his desk after his meeting with Mylan Inc. He’s guarantees us the money will find it’s proper owner.
12Whoo boy! For a thousand lousy bucks, he’s willing to watch people die. Oh, wait. He doesn’t have to watch, so it doesn’t matter. If it mattered, he’d send the money back with a note about supporting them when hell froze over. Want to bet on that happening?
13Yeah, well, ummm, what about Ben Gauzey?
14Cheryl . . . and singing “lillie malene”.
15Seriously, though, this congress critter is not in D.C. this month. He is supposed to be in his home district glad handing his constituents. Now is the time to rub his nose in this situation, smack him with a rolled up newspaper, and tell him “Bad dog!!!”
16Says the CEO: “It was just business.” As if that justifies the immorality.
17My Senator, Amy Klobuchar, has a child with allergies to peanuts and a few other things. She is all over Mylan’s ass on this and Amy knows how to do that. Congressional hearings, press conferences, press releases, etc. They’re going to regret f*cking with Amy. BTW, Minnesota’s junior senator, AL Franken, is a pretty good hell raiser too and he doesn’t care for those Mylan b*stards either. It’s not going to get better for them any time soon.
18If only those dumb b*****ds cared about a little bad publicity. As long as the money continues to roll in, it’s all good.
19Mylan: “Hey Congress varmint! Here’s 500 bucks.”
Olson: “Five hundred? What do you take me for?”
Mylan: “Oh, that’s settled. We’re just dickering about the price. OK. How bout a thou?”
Olson: “Huh. That’s still awful cheap. Give me a job lobbying for you when I get out of Congress and I’ll take it.”
Mylan: “Deal.”
20two crows: Congrats. Game. Set. Match.
21Hi, RepubAnon! I read Stonekettle Station’s article the other night and it struck me as kind of playing both sides of the fence. What Mylan did was bad, but there’s nothing ethically wrong with a business raising prices. Also, Jim seemed to be taken in by Mylan’s obfuscated claim that they had lowered the price in response to the outrage. (They didn’t, Mylan simply offered a $300-off coupon for a $600+ 2-pack; the coupon only being available to a limited group of people who probably will have difficulty even meeting the reduced $300 cost. Everyone else pays full price, either out of pocket or indirectly through their insurance.)
I found these stories at DownWithTyranny more informative than Jim Wright’s Stonekettle Station story:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2016/08/us-senator-joe-manchins-daughter-next.html
– by a podiatrist familiar with the EpiPen; discusses alternatives
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2016/08/mylan-didnt-lower-epipen-prices-after.html
– good follow-up by blogger
22Not to play devil’s advocate, but I wonder how many members of Congress got the same thousand dollars. These big donors MOs is to give to incumbents on both sides.
23Scott: Yeah. The US Congress. The best that money can buy! (What am I saying?!!!! This is “the best”?!!! Damn inflation.) Sigh.
24My mother, of blessed memory, was told always to have an EpiPen available, in case of a bee sting or ingestion of an allergen (she had many allergies, and more as she aged). I think back then the EpiPen was $20.
25It occurred to me last night that the best solution to this may indeed be the free market, for a change. Epinephrine – cheap and not patented. All that’s needed is a delivery system not currently patented by Mylan, and let the price wars begin!
This is why it’s so important that a “free market” have some built-in safeguards. And chief among them is that no single entity can have a monopoly on essential goods or services. Real markets function on competition. It’s the only realistic way to drive innovation and control prices.which is why trade and anti-trust legislation, so frequently overlooked, is so important.
26Here are some links/URL’s to Adrenaclick/Epipen articles from the most respected source of consumer, product, and services information there is: Consumer Reports (I’ve been a subscriber since about 1967).
Don’t know for certain if the entire article is available to non-subsc’s, but their summaries usually cover enough.
Of course CR has huge resources for both medical issues (all aspects) and almost everything else, from air conditioner’s to yogurt.
It’s worth a subscription, print or online, or both, a bargain (and I don’t even buy that much ‘stuff’, new stuff anyway, my newest vehicle is 21 y/o…;]- ; drooling over a Chevy Volt though…).
You can read the abv’d topic in the link URL itself:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/health/drugs/index.htm
.
http://www.consumerreports.org/drugs/expired-epipens-what-you-need-to-know/
.
http://www.consumerreports.org/drugs/can-you-get-a-cheaper-epipen/
.
http://www.consumerreports.org/drugs/how-to-get-cheaper-epipen-alternative/
.
Screw crooked Mylan’s Epipen!
I used get them ‘just in case’, they were cheap (even cheaper in Matamoros, Reynosa or Monterrey); still have an ancient 2-pack, been meaning to check it. I get stung by bees, wasps, jellyfish, etc. occasionally, been lucky with stingrays, but one’s gonna get me sooner or later (and those damned lionfish are showing up on the Texas coast too).
27Just an fyi sent to me by a doc friend for anyone who needs this product. If you need an Epipen but can’t afford it, there ARE alternatives. Have Doc write an Rx for Adrenaclick but sign Substitution Allowed and have the pharmacy order this generic from Lineage Therapeutics. I saw where Costco can get it and patient pays $10. Spread this if you want to share with patients who may need this.
28Mylan has offered to produce a generic version of the Epi Pen for the bargain price of only $300. Why don’t they cut the crap and just return the price to its original? Which was also too much, IMO.
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