Mylan and the EpiPen

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School

East Carolina University *

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Course

3115

Subject

Marketing

Date

Apr 3, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

2

Uploaded by AgentRiverAnteater30 on coursehero.com

1. How do the cost increases of EpiPen affect quality of the product and access of persons who have potentially fatal allergies? The quality of the EpiPen changed when there was only one pen included for a reasonable price of $50 but Mylan changed their marketing to promote the need of two pens in a pack now, increasing the price. People with fatal allergies must always have their medicine on them and increasing the price of an EpiPen is very seriously like life or death. Overpricing medication that is needed for survival cannot be blamed solely on the healthcare system because EpiPen is the dominant brand in providing epinephrine for anaphylaxis and Mylan choose how much they market their product for. My brother has type 1 diabetes, so I understand the major frustration of not being able to get affordable medicine needed for survival. 2. What was Mylan’s mission statement? What was the marketing plan Mylan employed with regard to EpiPen and what relationship (if any) did it have to Mylan’s marketing and pricing of the EpiPen? Mylan’s mission statement was “helping people in small West Virginia towns and rural communities gain access to affordable medicine." The marketing plan was to target parents of children with allergies who were concerned about the safety of their children, more specifically to inform the public about the seriousness of allergies in children. Mylan’s marketing plan shifted to promote the need for not only one EpiPen but two, by depicting children whose lives were saved because they had success to the 2 pack. Shifting the focus on children with allergies made it possible for Mylan to lobby the school boards into requiring schools have EpiPens available in case of anaphylactic emergency. 3. How did Mylan’s pricing of the EpiPen fit with the company’s position on corporate social responsibility? Mylan’s pricing of the EpiPen fit with the company’s position on corporate social responsibility by creating EpiPen4Schools program, in which the company would donate 4 EpiPens at no cost to a school each year. Mylan also offered a discounted rate to the schools when buying EpiPen’s in bulk or a deeper discount if you exclusively bought EpiPens only for the year. 4. Was Mylan acting ethically with its marketing and price increases of EpiPen? Why or why not? I do not think that Mylan was acting ethically with both its marketing and price increases of EpiPen because they have no moral agent when using children’s allergies to get consumers to buy their product. It is important to educate and make people aware of anaphylaxis but
increasing the price of this life saving medication is making it hard for families to even purchase enough pens to have for their child, let alone buying a new one every year. Other countries have provided the 2 pack EpiPen at an affordable cost, mostly due to their healthcare system, but the United States is the only country with the astronomical price tag. I believe that Mylan was acting in the way that all big pharma companies act, they take advantage of the fact that people rely on this medicine to live and in turn they charge whatever they want to make a profit for everyone involved. Following a code of ethics means doing what is right and I do not believe that Mylan’s mission statement follows up with their actions of price increase and marketing.
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