The Latest from the Prospect
 â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â
Â
View this email in your browser
<[link removed]>
**AUGUST 7, 2023**
On the Prospect website
* David Dayen on the success of Demand Justice
<[link removed]>
* Lee Harris on restoring Davis-Bacon protections
<[link removed]>
for federal construction projects
* Harold Meyerson on stock buybacks and the improving economy
<[link removed]>
Kuttner on TAP
****
****
****
****
****
****
****
**** Eminent Domain for Overpriced Drugs
Exhibit A is the case of the EpiPen. It should cost a few dollars rather
than the $600 or more charged by monopolist Viatris.
Lindsey Ulin is a medical resident at Boston's Brigham and Women's
Hospital. She was on a plane when she noticed hives appearing and felt
her throat closing. As a physician, she recognized the symptoms as
potentially fatal anaphylactic shock.
Dr. Ulin knew that the needed intervention was a fast and strong dose of
epinephrine. She immediately called a flight attendant, knowing that
planes carry EpiPens as part of their emergency kits.
But it turned out that the airlines have stopped carrying these simple
devices, which anyone can use, in favor of a glass vial of epinephrine
that requires a separate hypodermic needle to administer. Dr. Ulin later
wrote in a medical newsletter, in a piece adapted and reprinted by
**The Boston Globe**
<[link removed]>,
"I'm alive today because another physician happened to be on my flight
and knew how to safely give epinephrine from the glass vial stocked in
the kit. But others may not be so lucky."
Why did airlines stop carrying easy-to-use EpiPens? Because they cost
several hundred dollars, while a plain, hard-to-administer vial of
epinephrine costs about $5. In her article, Dr. Ulin points out that
airline emergency kits included EpiPens until 2016, when they got an FAA
waiver. She blasts the airlines for pinching pennies at the expense of
passenger safety, as well as the FAA for letting them get away with it.
But while the airlines have a deplorable record on many fronts and could
well afford EpiPens, in this case Dr. Ulin has fingered the wrong prime
villain. If there is one industry more appalling than the airlines, it
is Big Pharma.
Epinephrine pens ought to be cheap and easily available. For all intents
and purposes, they are generic devices. But one company, Mylan
<[link removed]>,
recently renamed Viatris, has used a combination of patent manipulation,
litigation, and anti-competitive tactics to keep its near monopoly on
auto-injector devices, a simple technology that is 50 years old.
In February 2022, Viatris paid $264 million to settle a class action
lawsuit that alleged the company had engaged in a scheme to delay
generic competition. That $246 million is chump change compared to the
billions Viatris makes by using its monopoly power to price-gouge. The
company made over $2 billion in 2022.
As the
**Prospect** has reported, the government has a seldom-used
eminent-domain power known as march-in rights
<[link removed]>,
which allows it to license patents to producers other than the patent
owner if a drug or device was developed partly with public funds and is
urgently needed for public-heath purposes
<[link removed]>.
The EpiPen was privately developed back in the 1970s, but piggybacked on
autoinjector technology
<[link removed]> first developed
to deliver antidotes to protect military people who were exposed to
nerve gas. It's a close question whether the government could use
march-in rights to license EpiPen technology, but this simple,
lifesaving device is a poster child for the creative use of eminent
domain. Even the threat should compel the company to cut its prices.
Congress needs to act to broaden government's ability to go after the
price-gouging and patent abuse that is endemic in the drug industry.
Another alternative is to ease imports of competing products. Britain
has approved a competing epinephrine autoinjector, Jext, which costs
about $50.
The basic autoinjection technology is simple and should have been
considered generic decades ago. Viatris's game is to keep patenting
embellishments and then contend that the basic technology is still
proprietary.
In July 2021, President Biden issued a whole-of-government order
<[link removed]>
requiring every agency to use its powers to promote competition. That
surely includes the NIH and the FDA, which have been far too protective
of drug industry monopoly profits.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe. <[link removed]>
Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter <[link removed]>
[link removed]
Biden Admin to Restore Labor Rule Gutted in 1980s
<[link removed]>
The Department of Labor plans to reverse the neoliberal-era gutting of a
law that stopped contractors from bidding down wages in federal
procurement. BY LEE HARRIS
Buybacks Are Down, Production Is Up
<[link removed]>
Bidenomics has begun to de-financialize the economy. BY HAROLD MEYERSON
A Sea Change in Democrats' Approach to the Judiciary
<[link removed]>
As Brian Fallon leaves Demand Justice, one of several groups
highlighting the urgency of the courts, the movement he helped lead has
made real gains. BY DAVID DAYEN
Â
[link removed]
Click to Share this Newsletter
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
<[link removed]>
The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States
Copyright (c) 2023 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
To opt out of American Prospect membership messaging, click here
<[link removed]>.
To manage your newsletter preferences, click here
<[link removed]>.
To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters,
click here
<[link removed]>.
