Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Rx Savings' Rea on Wide Gaps in EpiPen Drug Pricing (Audio)

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Rx Savings' Rea on Wide Gaps in EpiPen Drug Pricing (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: news over your Bloomberg type squawk s q U A
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  Speaker 1: That's a Bloomberg business flash. Now on Bloombern Radio, we
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  Speaker 1: take stock of healthcare. The tissue of drug pricing has
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  Speaker 1: been at the forefront, certainly in the political brown for
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  Speaker 1: the last few months. We're in a very special time
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  Speaker 1: in the history of the pharmaceutical industry. How many three
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  Speaker 1: percent of all biotechs that start actually get a drug approved.
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  Speaker 1: It's a very hard thing to do. Bloomberg takings to
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  Speaker 1: healthcare and focus on Bloomberg radio the prices of drugs.
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  Speaker 1: The EpiPen allergy shot, for example, we know, of course
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  Speaker 1: it's in mentioning controversy because it sells for almost as
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  Speaker 1: much as the latest iPhone in the United States, actually
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  Speaker 1: cost less than its leather case in Britain. That's just
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  Speaker 1: one egregious example of the kind of situations that Michael
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  Speaker 1: Ray faces and tries to solve with his company are
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  Speaker 1: X Savings Solutions, where he's founder and CEO based in
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  Speaker 1: Overland Park, Kansas. So, Michael, uh, it has the problem
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  Speaker 1: gotten less bad with so much focus on it or
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  Speaker 1: does it continue to you know, vexed consumers and companies? Well,
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  Speaker 1: I think, you know, for pleasurely with you guys, I
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  Speaker 1: think it continues to vex the entire market. And when
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  Speaker 1: you see store whereas like today, um, you start comparing
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  Speaker 1: to other countries that at even another level of questioning
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  Speaker 1: about what, um, what what a price should be. M
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  Speaker 1: we obviously know we've been paying and uh, you know
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  Speaker 1: last week my island was in front of Congress, but
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  Speaker 1: they didn't lower the price. You know, it's it's a
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  Speaker 1: public scolding, but it's not it's not change in prices.
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  Speaker 1: So it's concerning. Hey, Michael, you know, one of the
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  Speaker 1: things I want to point to out is that federal
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  Speaker 1: health regulators have said that my line is short change
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  Speaker 1: in the government on rebates for sales of EpiPen uh,
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  Speaker 1: despite the drugmaker having already been admonished that the way
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  Speaker 1: it classified the device for rebates is in correct. Can
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  Speaker 1: you explain what's going on? Well, I think that you know,
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  Speaker 1: the way rebates work is very complex. Um. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you can call rebates can be called different things. Um,
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  Speaker 1: they can be called access fees, formulary formulary tr fees,
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  Speaker 1: they can be called mark could share. But the but
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  Speaker 1: the you know, at the end of the day, it's
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  Speaker 1: money that's promised to go back to whoever the payer is,
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  Speaker 1: in this case the federal government. Um. You know, if
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  Speaker 1: if that is the case and that's found out to
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  Speaker 1: be be true, UM, I suspect more problems from Island.
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  Speaker 1: So tell us more about how your company is working
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  Speaker 1: to solve this problem. Yeah, great, great question. Um. You know, so,
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  Speaker 1: really what we're trying to do is we're trying to
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  Speaker 1: put information in the hands of consumers. Americans are you know,
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  Speaker 1: really good consumers and nearly everything they buy except prescription drugs.
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  Speaker 1: And the reason that they're not is not because they
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  Speaker 1: don't want to, it's because it's too hard. Um, there's
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  Speaker 1: there's a lack of information available. UM, there's certain players
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  Speaker 1: in the supply chain that that wants, UM, you know,
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  Speaker 1: access to certain information so that so that you know,
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  Speaker 1: consumer will buy an f depen instead of another product
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  Speaker 1: on the market, UM, another FNF from product that maybe
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  Speaker 1: a third of the price. And so you know, what
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  Speaker 1: we really try to do is put that information back
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  Speaker 1: in the hands consumers, let them know about all of
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  Speaker 1: their options, and in turn they act more like consumers.
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  Speaker 1: They save money, the health plan saves money, and their
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  Speaker 1: employers saves money. So what the people who use an EpiPen,
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  Speaker 1: what do they take away from this? Yeah, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's a great, great question, and I think that um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, this is something that's been missing from the
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  Speaker 1: conversation is the fact that there is an F and
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  Speaker 1: F from product available. It's an auto injector product. Um,
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  Speaker 1: it's a fraction of the price to EpiPen, and most
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  Speaker 1: people just don't even know that they have that choice
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  Speaker 1: miland was very effective the same. And what about the cost,
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  Speaker 1: because I know that I was looking at the cost
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  Speaker 1: of the EpiPen. It now sells for more than six
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  Speaker 1: hundred dollars per two pack, or more than three dollars
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  Speaker 1: a piece. Obviously, when they bought this product back in
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, they saw they were selling this
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  Speaker 1: product was selling for fifty seven dollars each. Yeah, So
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  Speaker 1: I think that there's there's really two important points there.
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  Speaker 1: The first is UM, you know, they rose prices because
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  Speaker 1: they thought they could UM and in a free market,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we reward stockholders for that. On the flip side, UM,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of information has been withheld from from you
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  Speaker 1: health plans, employers and their consumers, and so really we
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  Speaker 1: want to put that information back in the hands of
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  Speaker 1: the consumer. They can pay half the price that they
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  Speaker 1: would otherwise for nepeten. And something that we've been doing
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  Speaker 1: for a couple of years is we've seen this happen,
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  Speaker 1: is we've been moving and getting that information out to
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  Speaker 1: our users where they're paying ten dollar co pays for
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  Speaker 1: a generic from product instead of six price tech that
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  Speaker 1: the pharmacy counter for the branded so that there's a
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  Speaker 1: really big difference and that information needs to get to people.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like, uh, do you see more, um more
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  Speaker 1: of the kind of thing you do being done in
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  Speaker 1: the in the industry by other companies as well? You know,
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  Speaker 1: I haven't heard of anyone else doing it yet. I suspect,
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  Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of interest in this um
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  Speaker 1: and and one of the things that we take some
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  Speaker 1: pride in is we do have a granted patent for
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  Speaker 1: the process, so we think but it's a bit unique,
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  Speaker 1: and we really want to advocate for the people who
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  Speaker 1: haven't had the representation for a long time. That's consumers,
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  Speaker 1: that's their their employers, and the health plans that largely
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  Speaker 1: have been taken out of the equation in a lot
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  Speaker 1: of cases. Thank you very much for joining us. Michael
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  Speaker 1: Ray is the founder and the chief executive of our
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  Speaker 1: ex Savings Solutions based in Overland Park, Kansas. Of course
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  Speaker 1: is our healthcare segment. And just to give you an
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  Speaker 1: update on the EpiPen program, Senate staffers and two U
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  Speaker 1: S senators have called for an increased investigation of the
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  Speaker 1: classification of EpiPens. You're listening to taking stock This is Bloomberg, Bloomber.
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