Joe Manchin and his buddies at Mylan sure are having a bad couple of weeks.
Last week, a business owned by Manchin and Mylan lobbyist Larry Puccio was sued for defaulting on a $15 million loan and failing to pay $600,000 in taxes. The two were then caught repeatedly lying to the press about their relationship with the deadbeat company. And yesterday, Mylan’s CEO, who happens to be Joe Manchin’s daughter, announced a $465 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice for ripping off taxpayers. The settlement is already being criticized as inadequate, due to the fact that Mylan actually ripped off taxpayers to the tune of $1.2 billion. Looks like Manchin’s favorite donors may be a little short on cash for his reelection campaign!
“Joe Manchin has made excuses for Mylan for years, but this settlement shows that the pharmaceutical giant has been ripping off taxpayers under his watch,” said NRSC Spokesman Bob Salera. “Instead of founding shady businesses with Mylan’s lobbyists and encouraging his colleagues to keep an open mind when investigating his daughter, maybe Joe Manchin should have been watching out for the West Virginians being ripped off by the company.”
Background:
Mylan’s CEO, Heather Bresch, is the daughter of Senator Joe Manchin. “The growing congressional scrutiny of pharmaceutical giant Mylan over the high cost of EpiPens could prove awkward for Sen. Joe Manchin. The West Virginia Democrat’s daughter, Heather Bresch, is chief executive of the company, which appears to have hiked the price of the epinephrine auto-injector by 400 percent since 2007. The device, which is used to treat severe allergic reactions, now costs more than $600 per dose.” (Catherine Ho, “CEO at center of EpiPen price hike controversy is Sen. Joe Manchin’s daughter,” Washington Post, 8/24/16)
A report from the Department of Health and Human Services showed that Mylan received overpayments from the federal government of $1.27 billion from 2006-2016. “Drug maker Mylan (MYL), which manufactures the allergy treatment EpiPen, found itself at the center of yet another controversy Wednesday, after the Department of Health and Human Services said the government may have overpaid the company by $1.27 billion from 2006-2016.) (Brittany De Lea, “Did EpiPen maker Mylan cheat taxpayers out of $1.27B?” Fox Business, 5/31/17)
As Mylan hiked the price of EpiPens from $100 to $600, Manchin’s daughter’s salary rose from $2.4 million to nearly $19 million. “Last year, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch was chided by lawmakers for her compensation, which rose sharply in recent years, largely in step with the price of EpiPens. In 2015, her compensation reached nearly $19 million, up from $2.4 million in 2007, which was when Mylan purchased the rights to EpiPen and began raising prices. The devices went from nearly $100 for a two-pack to a little over $600. The company earned $1.1 billion in revenue from the devices in 2015.” (Beth Mole, “Amid outrage and tumbling stocks, Mylan’s chairman pocketed $97M,” Ars Technica, 5/2/17)
As Mylan was investigated by Congress, Manchin encouraged his colleagues to be “open-minded and fair.” “Heather Bresch, Manchin’s daughter and Mylan’s chief executive officer, has come under fire from lawmakers, including many of his fellow Democrats, for her pricing decisions on the life-saving anti-allergy drug…‘The only thing you can ask is that people be open-minded and fair,’ Manchin said.” (Steven T. Dennis, “Mylan CEO Behind EpiPen Price Furor Praised by Senator Father,” Bloomberg Politics, 9/7/16)
As Mylan raised its prices, Manchin’s wife, Gayle Manchin, spearheaded an effort to require schools to buy the product. “After Gayle Manchin took over the National Association of State Boards of Education in 2012, she spearheaded an unprecedented effort that encouraged states to require schools to purchase medical devices that fight life-threatening allergic reactions…The CEO of Mylan then, and now, was Heather Bresch. Gayle Manchin is Heather Bresch’s mother…Mylan is the subject of congressional investigations related to huge price hikes the company announced last month. It also faces an antitrust probe by the New York attorney general stemming from its EpiPen sales contracts with schools.” (Jayne O’Donnell, “Family matters: EpiPens had high-level help getting into schools,” USA Today, 9/20/16)