Pennsylvania-based Mylan Pharmaceuticals' attorney sent a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying the company will not testify at a Senate hearing on Nov. 30, 2016, according to STAT.
Here are five takeaways:
1. In the letter, the attorney said Mylan will not appear for three reasons, with the first reason listed as the "stated focus of the hearing."
2. Mylan also refuses to testify because the case is a pending matter and the Department of Justice and CMS previously stated they are not sending officials to testify.
3. In a statement, Sen. Grassley wrote, "The Obama Administration is dodging accountability for an expensive problem, and now a company is following its bad example...Ironically, the company was eager to talk about this problem a few weeks ago in a press release to investors but not before the United States Senate. It's a shame government agencies and the company are ducking accountability under a voluntary process."
4. A Senate Judiciary Committee spokesperson said the committee may reschedule the hearing and the committee has subpoenaed other witnesses. Sen. Grassley called the hearing following a CMS report stating Mylan overcharged Medicaid for EpiPen over a several-year time span. Various legislators have questioned CMS following the reports for how closely it monitored Medicaid rebates.
5. In September, Sen. Grassley, alongside Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch saying Mylan "may have knowingly misclassified EpiPens." Sen. Grassley also penned a separate letter probing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White as to whether the agency was investigating if Mylan misled investors. He wrote, "If Mylan's purpose of the press release was to increase stock prices at the risk of misleading investors, it is exactly this set of facts and circumstances that the SEC should monitor."
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