Pennsylvania

Mylan, Company Behind EpiPen, Fought to Keep Cheaper Generic Off Market: Documents

The CEO of Mylan Pharmaceuticals announced the launch of its own cheaper version of the EpiPen this week on the heels of a price hike uproar. But for years, Mylan and its business partners have fought fiercely behind the scenes to block a cheaper generic from hitting the market, NBC New York's I-Team reported.

Documents reviewed by the I-Team show the Pennsylvania-based drug firm paid for opposition research on a generic EpiPen proposed by Teva, an Israeli pharmaceutical company.

The study concluded the Teva product would have a 93 percent failure rate.

But experts on research methodology say the study has significant flaws, including the lack of any control group, the lack of any statistical significance, and the fact that study participants were instructed "not to actually manipulate the device or perform the injection."

In an email to the I-Team, Nina Devlin, a company spokeswoman, defended the integrity of the study, saying it "offered a valid examination" of Teva's product design and how the injector might be used in an emergency.

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