Sen. Klobuchar Fights For Fair Prices On EpiPen

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A Minnesota lawmaker is taking a stand for families who deal with severe allergies.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the price of the popular life-saving medicine, EpiPEn, is too much.

EpiPen is a shot people with severe allergies carry around in case they have a severe reaction. Whether the allergy is to food, bees or medicine, the EpiPen shot helps open a person's throat when it closes.

The controversy is over the price.

In 2009 a two-pack of the shot was around $100, now the price $600.

Sen. Kloubachar is asking her colleagues in Washington to hold a hearing to investigate the price increase.

The increase happened after the company who makes it, Mylan, gained a monopoly on the market after their competitor fell off.

One former pharmaceutical industry executive is defending the company.

"Mylan's a good guy. They have one product where they're finally starting to make a little bit of money over it and everybody's going crazy over," Martin Shkreli, former head of Turing Pharmaceuticals said. 'It's $300 and 90 percent of Americans are insured."

Mylan tells CBS they've had to make a significant investment to keep supporting this product.

Sen. Kloubuchar said this is about a company exploiting their market advantage.

She said she wants the Senate Judiciary Committee on this and she wants the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.

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