The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Mylan (NSDQ:MYL) broke the law after reports claimed the EpiPen maker prevented schools from buying competing allergy treatments.
In a letter penned to the FTC, committee chairman Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking member Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) wrote, “increasing patient access to safe, effective and affordable medications has long been a shared priority of ours. We also share a strong belief that potential anti-competitive actions by drug industry participants must be aggressively investigated because of their impact on competition and drug costs.”
The Senate request comes weeks before the committee will meet to review a pending $465 million settlement that Mylan has offered to resolve claims that it underpaid the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid for years, misclassifying its device as a generic and paying a 13% rebate, instead of the 23% rebate for a branded drug.
The Canonsburg, Pa.-based company has been under fire since August, when reports surfaced that it raised the price of its EpiPen product by more than 500% over the past decade.
Mylan shares closed down -8% last week at $33.76 apiece, after the U.S. Justice Dept. said it would file charges against several generic pharmaceutical companies for potential price collusion by the end of the calendar year.
Yesterday, MYL shares rose nearly +9% and peaked at $36.79 per share. Today, it was trading at $36.42 apiece, down -0.36%.
