Mylan CEO defends EpiPen price hike in congressional hearing

The fight over the price of the EpiPen, an emergency treatment device for severe allergic reactions, has officially reached Capitol Hill. CEO Heather Bresch of Mylan, the company that makes the EpiPen, defended the drug's drastic price increase during a congressional hearing Wednesday as a balance between "price and access," pointing out that Mylan only profits $50 for each two-pack sold and that it has in the past distributed EpiPens to schools for free.

"Looking back, I wish we had better anticipated the magnitude and acceleration of the rising financial issues for a growing minority of patients, who may have ended up paying the [list price] or more. We never intended this," Bresch said in a statement released ahead of the hearing.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) accused Mylan of raising the price of a potentially lifesaving drug — despite keeping its ingredients virtually unchanged — when it acquired EpiPen in 2007, in order "to get filthy rich at the expense of our constituents." Cummings also compared Mylan's tactics to those of Martin Shkreli, the widely-loathed pharmaceutical executive who raised the price of a lifesaving cancer and HIV drug by 5,000 percent.

Since Mylan acquired EpiPen, the price of the device has risen more than 500 percent, to $608 for a two-pack.