OHIO OFFICIALS URGED TO JOIN CAMPAIGN TO HOLD MYLAN RESPONSIBLE
Columbus – Five Ohio public employees and Ohio Taxpayers for Lower Drug Prices today urged Ohio top pension officials to join a growing investor revolt against senior management at Mylan Inc., the controversial drug company and maker of the EpiPen anti-allergy device whose name is now synonymous with “price gouging.”
In a letter, the group called on the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS), as a major Mylan shareholder, to vote its shares to oust Mylan’s current Board of Directors and to oppose a decision to award a $98 million pay package to former Mylan CEO Robert J. Coury.
OPERS owns $11 million in Mylan stock – or about 300,000 shares.
“The Mylan board has made a series of terrible management decisions and Mylan’s stock price has suffered as a result,” said Theresa Kauble, one of the five employees.
“It’s time to kick the current Mylan board out of office, and Ohio’s own OPERS trustees can help make that happen.”
“Mylan needs to be punished for business practices that have ripped off Ohio consumers and taxpayers,” added Ohio Taxpayers spokesman Dennis Willard
. “The question now is whether the trustees of $90 billion of Ohio pension money are ready to stand up to drug companies like Mylan and stop their reckless greed.”
Ohio Taxpayers is sponsoring the upcoming November ballot issue to lower the prices that Ohio state government agencies pay for drugs so that they are in line with what the U.S. Department of Veterans Administration pays for the same drugs. A half-dozen Ohio agencies, including Medicaid and state employee health plans, buy drugs for 4 million Ohio residents. By lowering drug prices, the ballot measure – the Ohio Drug Price Relief Act – would save Ohio taxpayers $400 million a year.
Mylan has been wracked by controversy over the last year. The company’s decision to hike the price of the EpiPen (a drug device often used to protect children with dangerous allergies) to more than $600 caused an uproar among parents nationwide and prompted congressional hearings in Washington, D.C. where Mylan’s current CEO, Heather Bresch, was sharply attacked for “price gouging.”
In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice has alleged that Mylan overcharged state Medicaid programs by possibly as much as $1.2 billion. The recent announcement of Coury’s huge pay package was the last straw for many Mylan investors who saw the price of the company’s stock shrink by 36 percent during months of bad publicity.
In the past two weeks, public employee pension boards in California and New York – as holders of millions of shares of Mylan stock - have announced that at Mylan’s annual shareholder meeting this Thursday they will vote against the Coury pay deal and seek the ouster of at least three Mylan board members who are up for reelection. Two investor advisory firms are also urging their clients to join this revolt.
“OPERS should join with other pension boards that are calling for a shakeup of Mylan’s board,” said Kauble. OPERS will be meeting this coming Tuesday and Wednesday in Columbus, and its 11 member Board of Trustees could conceivably take an emergency action in support of the investor revolt at that time.
“OPERS trustees need to send a message that the hard-earned dollars of Ohio’s taxpayers and consumers should not be used to fabulously enrich Coury – who is partly responsible for the notorious business practices that have tarnished Mylan’s reputation and contributed to a 36 percent loss in the value of Mylan’s stock over the last nine months,” added Patrick Harris, another public employee who signed the letter.
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