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The numbers the maker of EpiPen just released expose yet another load of nonsense
(Mylan CEO Heather Bresch.Reuters)
I didn't believe it when I heard it, and you probably didn't either — America was forced to humor the CEO of Mylan when she told Congress that she raised the price of the EpiPen to improve access for patients, not to make money.
Now we really don't have to believe it.
On Monday, the company released revised profit figures for its EpiPen, which treats life-threatening severe allergic reactions. Last week, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch testified before a House committee that her company only makes $100 per EpiPen two-pack.
Turns out, according to newly released numbers, the company makes at least $60 more than that. Mylan had used a much higher tax rate than it pays to calculate the original figure (whoops).
The numbers also hint that Bresch may have been reaching on another point she kept making at the hearing. Over and over, she said that the company raised the price of the EpiPen to improve access to the drug.
Part of that, Bresch said in an interview with CNBC last month, is ensuring that all parties who touch the drug get paid.
"In the system that's broken today, your products aren't going to get to patients because of ... all the middlemen," she told CNBC's Brian Sullivan.
The numbers Mylan presented on Monday showing gross profit margins above 70% from the life-saving allergy medication contradict that:
(Mylan)
You would think that if Mylan were spending its money on middlemen its margins would go down even as the cost of goods sold and volume went up. But they're not. Mylan's margins are fattening at a steady clip and have been since the company purchased the EpiPen in 2007.
That's an indication that the money Mylan is making is just that — Mylan's money, and no one else's.
It's not as though members of Congress didn't see this coming. Business Insider received a statement from Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland). He's the ranking member of the House oversight committee, which called the Mylan hearing in the first place.
"We didn't believe Mylan's numbers last week during their CEO's testimony, and we don't believe them this week either, which is why we gave them 10 days from the date of our hearing to produce their internal files," Cummings said. "They have until this Friday to give Congress the underlying documents we asked for back in August so we can finally determine the company's actual profits in each year for the last decade."
Honestly, do you really think Heather Bresch took home $18 million in 2015 and doesn't know how much money her company makes?
Us either.
For more on Mylan, listen to Business Insider's Linette Lopez and Josh Barro discuss it on their podcast, Hard Pass:
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