At first, the flap over the pricing of EpiPens fits neatly into the familiar framework of out-of-control greed: Pharmaceutical company CEO gets paid nearly $19 million a year while raising the list price of a two-pack of EpiPens to $600 from $100. But the more one gets into it, the more the case of the drug company Mylan and its Washington lobbying fits some other story lines, Ira Stoll writes. There’s the one about Washington being a revolving door, where government officials monetize their government service by going to work afterward in the private sector. And the one about how “both sides do it”—both Republican and Democratic politicians try to shake down these drug companies, and both Republican and Democratic staffers wind up getting paid by them.
Senate lobbying records show that Mylan spent more than $2 million on Washington lobbying in 2015. In addition, the company’s political action committee has distributed more than $79,500 in contributions for the 2016 election cycle, according to campaign finance records available at OpenSecrets.org. If Mylan didn’t have to spend so much money on Washington politics, writes Stoll, maybe it could afford to sell the EpiPens for less money. Or maybe if Mylan weren’t spending so much money on Washington politics, other companies would have an easier time getting government permission to offer competing products.
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