Watch Lee Munson at 3:42 when Fox host Charles Payne brings Lee in to begin his commentary about the business side of the story.
Complete segment here: http://bit.ly/2bl4HmI
Lee points out that every corporation should have the right to competitively price their products. It can cost up to $3 billion to create a patented drug, companies have a short time before cheap generic knockoffs can be sold and take away profitability.
But this isn’t competition, this is using a legal loophole to make this product for a buck and then charge $700 for it.
Lee says, “They’ve got to make money, but pricing a product at $700 which only costs $1 to make is ridiculous. Do not invest in companies in which the profit and the future earnings are based on a loophole that is lobbied for in the Washington DC beltway. Investors need to really think ‘How is this company really making money?’ before they invest.”
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Parents and lawmakers are upset about MYLAN LABS INC (MYL) 400% EpiPen price hike since 2007–most recently a huge price spike in July which has made the life-saving EpiPen nearly unaffordable. Meanwhile, Mylan Labs CEO Heather Bresch has received a 670% increase in pay during her tenure at the company. Stock prices have been dropping as investors bail due to negative publicity.
According to Robyn O’Brien, “the Erin Brockovich of food,” who appeared in the first half of the Fox segment, parents, lawmakers, school nurses are extremely upset by the unaffordable price of EpiPen—which now sells for $700 as of the end of July.
Robyn founded Allergy Kids Foundation to raise awareness a decade ago when her fourth son had an allergic reaction to food, and she was formerly a financial analyst herself. She points out that parents have to buy multiple EpiPens so they are available in case of emergency at home, school and car. EpiPens have an added economic disadvantage due to their short, year-long shelf life when they have to be replaced.
Children can die because they don’t have access to this lifesaving device.
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Lee Munson, is Co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Portfolio Wealth Advisors in Albuquerque, New Mexico and is also a father. He agrees with Fox host Charles Payne who says, “I’m a big-time capitalist, but this is not is not capitalism as I know it or preach it.”