Sen. Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, Nov. 30, on the potential settlement between the Justice Department and Mylan, maker of the EpiPen, on overcharges to the taxpayers through the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. Grassley made the following comment on the status of hearting witnesses.
“The Justice Department and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have suggested informally that they might not send witnesses to the hearing voluntarily. I’ve let them know that they have an obligation to testify and given them notice that if they decline, as a matter of protocol it needs to be in writing since they were invited in writing. I expect them to testify as a matter of accountability for a problem that persisted for years with their knowledge and under their watch. The taxpayers were overcharged by hundreds of millions of dollars for the EpiPen and apparently several other drugs as well as identified by the inspector general in 2009. The Obama Administration should answer for this lack of oversight. With all of the discussion from that side of the aisle about holding down drug prices, this was a specific way to do it -- holding companies to their obligations for participating in public health care programs. The failures to enforce those policies shouldn’t be repeated going forward.”
