At a press conference at the North Carolina Department of Justice on Thursday, North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced that the state has reached an $11 million settlement with Mylan, the maker and distributor of the EpiPen, for a number of anti-competitive practices that allowed it to mark up the price by 6 times in the state in under a decade.
About $4.2 million of the settlement will go to the State Health Plan and the Medicaid system under the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
An EpiPen is a self-injectable device that delivers epinephrine, a medication used to rapidly treat life-threatening allergic reactions (anaphylaxis).
Jackson said over 100,000 North Carolinians use EpiPens.
“What we discovered was evidence that the company that sells this was overcharging and overcharging the state and the State Health Plan overseen by the (State) Treasurer (Brad Briner),” he said. “From 2007 to 2016, the price of this went from about $100 to about $600. That’s a six-time increase in under a decade, and we believe we know why.”
The attorney general said they had evidence that the company exerted financial pressure on pharmacy benefit managers to prevent insurance companies from covering other, cheaper generic drugs. They also used the patent system to try to prevent cheaper generic drugs from entering the market, and they ran marketing campaigns against other cheaper drugs already on the market, making many misleading claims about them. And, they misclassified the EpiPen under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program and forced consumers to buy two-packs they didn’t always need.
In addition, Jackson said they also negotiated a reduction in out-of-pocket costs for all families going forward. Mylan has agreed to increase its co-pay coupon for the authorized generic version of EpiPen from $25 to $40, which will lower out-of-pocket costs.
He also said that the state has already seen the entrance of cheaper generics into the market.
The state’s lawsuit commenced after a separate class action lawsuit concluded in 2022.
Briner said the news about the settlement hits home for him, as he and his daughter both carry EpiPens due to different allergies.
He added that the $4.2 million of the settlement is money that the State Health Plan doesn’t have to ask hardworking state employees or taxpayers for.
“This money belongs to the people of North Carolina,” the treasurer said. “It’ll go right back to keeping premiums down and go right back to expanding coverage where we can for our state employees.”
Briner also stressed the challenges healthcare faces today and that it simply doesn’t work for payers or patients, but does seem to work only for providers.
“This is yet one more example of some of the abuses that we see in the system,” he said. “We’re working hard in the State Health Plan to try to reform the system, to try to change the incentives that exist in healthcare, and this example is one more time what we’re facing. We simply believe in transparency, fair pricing, and dollars spent wisely, and this is yet one more part of those efforts.”
Briner thanked Jackson not only for the settlement funds, but also for his office’s help with negotiations between the State Health Plan and CVS Caremark, the Plan’s pharmacy benefit manager, which led to a better resolution for taxpayers.
“We obviously sit on different sides of the aisle,” he said. “We obviously don’t agree on everything, but we certainly agree on this, and that is that nobody gets to take advantage of North Carolina taxpayers, and nobody gets to take advantage of state employees.”
Jackson said his office is also currently involved in litigation against a large number of prescription drug manufacturers for price fixing.
