400 percent rise in the cost of EpiPens $the daughter of $Joe Manchin$

San Francisco CA

Description

The dramatic 400 percent rise in the cost of EpiPens is the next big flash point in the national debate over skyrocketing prescription drug prices. It turns out that the woman at the center of this controversy has powerful political connections. My colleague Catherine Ho reports that the head of Mylan, the drug company accused of hiking the price of the pen that treats severe allergic reactions, is also the daughter of Joe Manchin, a Democratic U.S. senator from West Virginia and the state's former governor. Heather Bresch's career has risen along with her father's, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by her critics. But Bresch's corporate rise is also a modern-day success story. Over the past quarter century, she moved from a job in the basement, literally, to the CEO's office, all while raising a family and combating what she has described as "the old-boys' club" of the corporate drug world. This also isn't the first time Bresch's company has threatened to make her father's political life difficult. Here's a quick timeline of Bresch's career, matched up with her father's. 1986 — 1996: Manchin is a state senator. 1992-ish: Bresch, newly married, with a college degree and a stint teaching aerobics in California, moves back to West Virginia in need of a job. Here's how Fortune Magazine's Jen Wieczner describes how she got one: Her well-connected father ran into his friend Milan Puskar at a basketball game and finagled her an interview at Puskar’s drug company. Dropping by Mylan’s executive offices, then located in a double-wide trailer in Morgantown, Bresch walked out with a job typing labels in the factory basement.