Legal rules currently do not sufficiently discourage predatory pricing of prescription drugs, in this case EpiPens. The price of EpiPens rising in the pharmaceutical industry is legal and immoral. However, Mylan Pharmaceuticals may have violated the antitrust law in its EpiPen sales to schools. In 1890 the United States passed down the antitrust law also known as the Sherman Act. The Sherman Act regulates the conduct and organization of business corporations in order to promote fair competition and outlaw monopolistic business practices. The Federal Trade Commissions Act was passed down in 1914, and it bans unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices.. In August of 2012, Mylan Pharmaceuticals started the “EpiPen4Schools’ …show more content…
The complaint stated, “Defendant has a legal duty and obligation to set a fair, affordable, and reasonable [price] and not hold consumers hostage by forcing them to pay exorbitant prices for its medically necessary product”. Another lawsuit was filed in August in the federal court of Michigan for selling EpiPens in the US only in packs of two. The complaint stated, “Defendants have misstated the science regarding, and regulatory framework governing EpiPens in order to require consumers to buy extra, unneeded EpiPens, which are likely to go to waste, at an inflated cost.” In both lawsuits, the Plaintiffs have good reasons to file a lawsuit against Mylan. The Mylan Pharmaceutical company has been accused for many accusations but consumers have other alternative solutions if the company does not lower the price. An alternative solution for consumers who are uninsured is to apply to the Rx Advocacy program, which is a prescription assistance program to help those who are on high cost drugs but cannot afford them, regardless of their income level or qualifying for insurance. For
Walgreens v. Theranos Walgreens is suing a lab-testing affiliate federally over breach of contract, the proceeding will be taking place in Delaware. ‘Walgreens Boots Alliance’ is suing for 140 million dollars in damages (same amount invested). the civil suit is filed privately under seal so as to not become a public matter. Walgreens is claiming 'Theranos' misled them about they’re technology though Theronos will “ hold Walgreens responsible for damage it has caused” in june the partnership was terminated after concerns about Theranos’ technology and operations which possible put the store chain’s customers at risk.
Summary of Facts Federal Trade Commission v. Phoebe Putney Background. In an attempt to increase access to affordable care, the Hospital Authority Law, in Georgia (GA), states that “hospital authorities” can be developed to provide healthcare services in multiple counties. These hospital authorities can acquire, purchase, and lease multiple healthcare facilities. However, all actions of the hospital authority must benefit the community it serves. Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital is owned by the Hospital Authority of Albany-Dougherty County (Authority).
In the case of Abbott Laboratories v. Portland Retail Druggists, the respondent brought an antitrust action against Abbott Laboratories claiming that they had violated the Robinson-Patman Act. The pharmaceutical manufacturers had sold drugs to not-for-profit hospitals at lower prices then to the commercial pharmacies (Showalter, pg 452). The Robinson-Patman Act of 1936, which was an amendment to the Clayton Antitrust Act (Elfand, n.d.), had made it unlawful to discriminate by placing a pricing difference between buyers of similar goods, when “the effect of such discrimination may be substantially to lessen competition” (Abbott Laboratories v. Portland Retail Druggists, 1976). As the petitioners, Abbott Laboratories claimed that the price
The US was under heavy control of a lot of trusts that were ran and were worth a lot of money. Standard Oil had a ton of products they were producing which made them have better control on the railroad, because they were the biggest lube manufacturer for the railroads. In the first presidential election of the 19th century the biggest issue in the election was trusts. The main reasons Standard Oil was broken up was because of the Sherman Antitrust Act and Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States.
Unit 8 Assignment: Understanding Medicare Part D Tierra J. Neal Kaplan University Professor Eboni Green Health Policy May 2, 2016 Unit 8 Assignment: Understanding Medicare Part D In this paper I will provide information on the influences that helped stakeholders decide on the final outcome of Medicare Part D legislation. I will also list the different strategies and tools that were utilized to be most effective during the decision making of passing the legislation.
The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914 consisted of "a special tax on all persons who produce, import, manufacture, compound, deal in, dispense, sell, distribute, or give away opium or coca leaves, their salts, derivatives, or preparations, and for other purposes," (www.cfr.org). Blockbuster sold Morphine Hydrochloride to a buyer, that was not in it’s original packaging. Which violated
Right now in the United States of America, there is a monopoly that exists that involves epinephrine auto-injectors. EpiPen is the United States only supplier of these auto-injectors because other brands have suffered setbacks and failures, patent protection laws, and because there are currently no generic versions of EpiPen in the United States (Johnson). This monopoly was not a problem until Mylan bought Meda AB in 2007 (Paton). “Since Mylan bought the rights to EpiPen in 2007, it has raised the price on 15 separate occasions, bringing the current list price to $608 for a two-pack up from about $50 a pen in 2007” (Mole). This has been a price increase of more than 500%, and this shows that Mylan has been using the monopoly to its advantage.
To maintain fair competition in the thousands of businesses and industries throughout the United States, antitrust laws and trade regulations were created. Antitrust laws have been enacted at both the state and the federal level. These laws prohibit unfair competition between individuals and entities, as well as unfair or deceptive practices that may cause harm to consumers. What times of behaviors and actions does the government prohibit? The Sherman Antitrust Act, or the Sherman Act, is a law that was created over a century ago to stop businesses from combining in such a way that may damage competition.
In multiple news outlets today, one can find a plethora of rhetorical devices in a single segment. In each instance, the anchor, reporter, or tv personality is attempting to sway viewers’ opinions in subtle and unsubtle ways. Rhetorical devices are used for almost any topic, especially politics. The following examples were found in the MSNBC article over the price increase of the EpiPen written by Steve Benen on August 25, 2016, and a transcript of the Bresch Interview given with the essay prompt. The four rhetorical devices were a dysphemism, a rhetorical analogy, repetition, and a rhetorical explanation.
Healthcare costs in the United States are constantly rising straining the budgets of families and employers. As a result of the rising healthcare costs, insurance premium rates have been also increased. The premiums rates are increasing more rapidly than income which is part of the reason why Americans aren’t able to have access to affordable health insurance. Although the Affordable Care Act has been passed, there are many people still uninsured. The purpose of the Affordable Care Act was to improve the quality of care, provide more Americans with access to affordable insurance, and minimize healthcare spending in the United States.
Throughout the article Hightower utilizes specific diction that is casual yet makes his audience feel ashamed for being ignorant about prescription medicine issues that he presents. Therefore, when Hightower states, “‘We’ve identified 7,000 Americans who matter,’ this dismissing the other 330 million of us as nobodies,” many readers would become infuriated with the PhRMA because most people like to be relevant and considered. Also, when he says, “Moreover, they know they couldn’t possibly persuade us to let them keep jacking up our prices,” it makes his readers feel dumb if PhRMA was successful in persuading them or makes them feel prideful if they refuted PhRMA’s ridiculously high prices. Thus, Hightower is exceptional at persuading his audience to obtain a
If there was an open market for drugs and Americans’ were educated on the effects drugs can have on their bodies, the monopoly for drugs would rapidly decrease. Drugs are outlawed in America yet prohibition has never been successful in America. Anytime the government has tried to stop the distribution of a substance people have always jumped at the chance to make
For example, a patient may need a specific treatment. The physician’s administration attempt to gain approval form the insurance company to proceed with the treatment and is denied. The insurance company instead gives the physician another less expensive option. Though the option presented is less likely to give a better percentage of a positive outcome for the patient. The physician has a clear conflict in pleasing both the insurance company and the patient.
However, if many people have suffered from the product, a class action suit may be initiated because there is no guarantee that some other clients would not experience skin discoloration and it would make it very costly for the company to
They were affected by Johnson and Johnson blatantly not giving them important information related to the case. For example, it was kept secret for a very long time that cyanide was found in one of the company plants. Whether it was related to the cyanide poisoning in the Chicago doesn’t matter, the consumer has the right to know of all the information that has been found throughout the investigation of the case. In relation to Johnson and Johnson, they were putting consumers at risk when they didn’t tell the consumers of the cyanide found in the company plant, which is said to have no relation to the Tylenol contamination according to the