Word: mylan
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...lorazepam suddenly got so expensive, and neither are many of the patients whose doctors write more than 18 million prescriptions for the drug each year. But the Federal Trade Commission in Washington thinks it has a pretty good idea. The agency, joined by more than 30 states, recently accused Mylan Laboratories of Pittsburgh, Pa., and its suppliers of illegally tying up chemical feed-stocks used to make the drug. With control of the ingredients in hand, the FTC charged, Mylan could demand whatever price it wanted for the finished product. The FTC is now trying to force Mylan to "disgorge...
...Mylan CEO Milan Puskar not only rejects those allegations--"radical, rushed and wrong," he says--but thinks his company should get a medal for lowering overall drug costs to consumers during the past 15 years and for taking on brand-name drug companies that are resorting to every dilatory tactic at their disposal to keep their precious compounds from falling into the hands of generic manufacturers...
...Mylan's pricing strategy was designed to get the company out of a double whammy. At the pharmacy counter, brutal price competition for drugs such as captopril, a hypertension remedy, and naproxen, an antiarthritis drug, has hurt margins. At the factory, the company is facing an escalating legal and regulatory campaign waged by brand-name pharmaceutical companies such as American Home Products and Merck to extend patents on their drugs or prevent others from manufacturing them. "Generics are caught in a squeeze, which is why only half the 24 publicly traded companies in the industry are profitable," says Jerry Treppel...
...current scandal started to unravel after Roy McKnight, head of Pittsburgh-based Mylan Laboratories, began to suspect the FDA of favoritism. Frustrated that a rival firm consistently won FDA approval for its products before his company did, McKnight hired private detectives to spy on the Government. The detectives' snooping produced enough evidence of corruption to encourage the Justice Department to initiate a probe. In July, Charles Chang, 47, former head of the FDA's generic-drug division, and two co-workers pleaded guilty to accepting a total of $24,300 in illegal gifts in exchange for preferential treatment. The favored...
About a dozen manufacturers applied to produce the tranquilizer, but permission has so far been granted only to Zenith Laboratories, Mylan Laboratories and the Parke-Davis division of Warner-Lambert. Diazepam is expected to sell for up to 50% less than Valium. One hundred 5-mg tablets of the tranquilizer now cost around $25. Hoffmann-La Roche could lose 50% of its market share within three years. Says Zenith President James Leonard: "Consumers won't pay for a trademark. They are more interested in therapeutic value...