Page 7 - Mylan EpiPen

Heather Bresch – Strategic Development

On becoming Mylan’s CEO in 2012, Heather Bresch saw an

opportunity to capitalise on the nearly fifty-year-old EpiPen,

acquired from Merck in 2007 which had sales of around
$200m.

Her chosen strategy was predicated on marketing and

advocacy, launching a marketing campaign to increase

awareness of the dangers of anaphylaxis and to facilitate

EpiPen becoming the industry generic trademark. Mylan

also successfully lobbied both the FDA to broaden the label

to include risk of anaphylaxis and Congress to generate

legislation making EpiPens available in schools and in public

places similar to that for defibrillators. The result was that

Mylan's EpiPens rapidly gained market dominance.

In 2013 president Barak Obama passed legislation that

helped public schools build up emergency supplies of
EpiPens. Before the price hikes broke, prescriptions for

EpiPens had been steadily increasing since 2013 - peaking

every year in August, when parents of children with severe

allergies typically stocked up on the life-saving devices for
use in schools.

By the first half of 2015, Mylan had an 85% market share

(EpiPen devices) in the US with sales of around $1.5bn

accounting for 40% of Mylan's profit. However, those profits

were also due in part to Mylan's continually raising the price

of EpiPens starting in 2009.