November 21, 2016 at 12:55 pm ET
Executives from Mylan Pharmaceuticals declined an invitation to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week.
A lawyer for the company, which came under scrutiny earlier this year for the rising cost of EpiPens, said they declined the invitation since the topic of the committee is a pending matter and because representatives from the Department of Justice aren’t attending. Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released the letter declining the invitation Monday.
“The Obama Administration is dodging accountability for an expensive problem, and now a company is following its bad example,” Grassley said in a statement. “Taxpayers have paid and based on reports, continue to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more for the EpiPen than they have to pay. This happened because either the agencies in charge dropped the ball, the company gamed the system, or both.”
The Nov. 30 hearing could be rescheduled, Jill Gerber, a spokeswoman for Grassley, told Morning Consult.
The hearing will review how Mylan charged the Medicaid program for their allergy treatment, which was classified as a generic drug in the program, rather than as a brand name drug. Mylan has announced a $465 million settlement with the Department of Justice and other agencies, though the Obama administration has not confirmed that deal.
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